Innovation is the key to success, and 29-year old entrepreneur, Hinesh Jethwani, is a good example of that. Indian Hippy, his e-commerce website founded in 2009, seeks to address an important social issue– to preserve a near extinct hand-painted Bollywood film poster art, used for film advertising in yesteryears.

His team of 20 artists churn out customized Bollywood posters, chairs, coffee tables, wallets, handbags, etc., in Bollywood film poster format, starting from Rs 2500 (about US$55) onwards. Driven by passion and desire to make a difference in an area where a deep void existed, Hinesh seeks inspiration from ordinary, everyday folks who have the courage to pursue their goals.

“I read a news report on billboard artists who were out of work because of posters going digital, I managed to gather few of these artists and decided to work with them to keep the art alive,” he says.

“During the course of my professional career where I changed quite a few 9-5 jobs, I realized that my potential was being limited in many ways. I tried to reason with myself – maybe jobs are transitional and sooner or later, I would get where I wanted to go.”

Using his creative abilities to build an innovative business model, Hinesh reckons, “Business terms like profit/loss, demand/supply were the least of my concerns. Risks taken completely out of sheer determination to succeed deliver a greater high than money and reputation ever can. These do not comprise the goal itself, but rather are by products generated on reaching your goal.”

Having tried his hand at DJing, journalism, technology marketing and sales training, Hinesh has come a long way and reckons that corporate jobs contributed in grooming his business acumen.  His mother acted as his greatest critic and biggest believer. “My elder brother too continues to provide an excellent backup, standing in for me whenever required. Also a childhood friend, who provided just the initial push I needed to launch Indian Hippy, and without his encouragement, this would have perhaps not been possible,” he said.

Utilizing his personal savings to fund this venture, he has followed a simple motto for all his initiatives, “Start small but think BIG. I have never been afraid to make a humble beginning and that’s exactly how Indian Hippy came into being.”

Many believe that one can lead a more balanced lifestyle by being their own boss, but in reality its not that simple. “Being an entrepreneur who is solely and completely responsible for his business, I do not have the liberty to “switch off” and ignore the call. Perhaps the greatest challenge for an entrepreneur would be to separate personal and professional life, as its easy to take your boss home with you each day!”

Hinesh’s future plans include hand-painting an aircraft entirely with Bollywood film poster art, as well as painting gigantic wall murals on the exterior of old buildings and commercial complexes.

So when I heard about iNDUSTRY

“A company made up of a small group of design professionals, with backgrounds in industrial design, interaction design, mechanical engineering, and brand storytelling. This allows them to tackle nearly any design challenge, pooling their multi-disciplinary expertise resulting in innovative solutions.”

I was instantly equal parts fascinated and confused. I went ahead and perused their Facebook page. And what I gathered from that is that their office is beautiful and obviously the people that started this company have great taste and enjoy a sleek modern aesthetic. So Finally I emailed them and they broke it down for me.

iNDUSTRY is a collective of creators, designers, thinkers and makers in Portland, Oregon that have joined together to form a new design and innovation company. They offer an integrated design approach, with a sweet spot in connected products (where industrial design and interaction design work together). INDUSTRY believes in rapid design and early prototyping, constantly testing design ideas through making. One of iNDUSTRY’s goals is to partner with a mix of companies – from large well-known brands, to the local start-up. INDUSTRY also has some of their own projects in the works (from consumer electronics, to furniture design, to web-based service) some of which will be going public soon!
Servies include:
Integrated product and interaction design
Brand strategy and messaging
Design ethnography and trends

Voicing concern for the environment in a world bombarded with warnings of impending destruction has evolved beyond being a trend – it’s now a lifestyle choice. Recognizing that being eco-friendly is more than just a fad, the youth are adding a dash of hip into this revolution by creating products made of sustainable materials and introducing Greenovations that seek to address a growing problem amidst a rapidly-changing world.

Today’s GREENovations are among the 14 kinds of youth entrepreneurs featured in Culture Vulture, our new quarterly trends series that offers a global snapshot of current and emerging cultural trends, bringing fresh insights from around the world to inspire and ignite new strategies for brands.

The first edition of Culture Vulture seeks to explore and understand the Entrepreneurial Spirit of Gen Y and how the youth’s innovative ideas can help stimulate game-changing strategies for brands that aspire to become more enterprising in their outlook.

Download our FREE Culture Vulture iPad app from iTunes for an overview on the global growth of entrepreneurship as well as the different behaviors that embody youth entrepreneurs worldwide, along with tips for nurturing “entrepreneurial” attitudes for brands.

Don’t have an iPad? Then download the interactive PDF . Also check out all of our 14 videos showcasing the different types of youth entrepreneurs around the world.

Interested to know more? Visit the Culture Vulture page or email culturevulture@mindshareworld.com.

The age of advanced technologies also gave rise to a yearning for the simple lifestyles of the past, as reflected through several social movements, and young entrepreneurs are quick to jump in on this trend. Preserving their own cultural identity is the Retro Renegades’ main mission, making the journey towards self-discovery by seeking to turn back time and revel in a world set in the past tense.

Today’s Retro Renegades are among the 14 kinds of youth entrepreneurs featured in Culture Vulture, our new quarterly trends series that offers a global snapshot of current and emerging cultural trends, bringing fresh insights from around the world to inspire and ignite new strategies for brands.

The first edition of Culture Vulture seeks to explore and understand the Entrepreneurial Spirit of Gen Y and how the youth’s innovative ideas can help stimulate game-changing strategies for brands that aspire to become more enterprising in their outlook.

Download our FREE Culture Vulture iPad app from iTunes for an overview on the global growth of entrepreneurship as well as the different behaviors that embody youth entrepreneurs worldwide, along with tips for nurturing “entrepreneurial” attitudes for brands.

Don’t have an iPad? Then download the interactive PDF . Also check out all of our 14 videos showcasing the different types of youth entrepreneurs around the world.

Interested to know more? Visit the Culture Vulture page or email culturevulture@mindshareworld.com.

The realm of fashion becomes a viable playground for young entrepreneurs who indulge their own creative juices in the process of designing and creating trends. Style Stalwarts are creative innovators in their own right, drawing inspiration from their own communities and looking forward to cast a wider net of influence, as they explore the prospects of showcasing their work on a global stage.

Today’s Style Stalwarts are among the 14 kinds of youth entrepreneurs featured in Culture Vulture, our new quarterly trends series that offers a global snapshot of current and emerging cultural trends, bringing fresh insights from around the world to inspire and ignite new strategies for brands.

The first edition of Culture Vulture seeks to explore and understand the Entrepreneurial Spirit of Gen Y and how the youth’s innovative ideas can help stimulate game-changing strategies for brands that aspire to become more enterprising in their outlook.

Download our FREE Culture Vulture iPad app from iTunes for an overview on the global growth of entrepreneurship as well as the different behaviors that embody youth entrepreneurs worldwide, along with tips for nurturing “entrepreneurial” attitudes for brands.

Don’t have an iPad? Then download the interactive PDF . Also check out all of our 14 videos showcasing the different types of youth entrepreneurs around the world.

Interested to know more? Visit the Culture Vulture page or email culturevulture@mindshareworld.com.

Vincent Parker may well be the James Brown of Vancouver’s electronic dance music scene.

The hardest working man in Van city and with good reason, Vincent has been sculpting a distinct vein in dance floor destruction for the last few years to serious effect. When it comes to IDM, breakcore, techno, booty bass and noise, he slams up in the blender, spits em’ out and provides the most intense shot to your cerebral cortex since Richard D. James owned a tank and had dancing teddy bears on stage with him.

As far as live shows go, Vincent Parker is again, as close to James Brown as you’re gonna get in Vancouver. Literally a blur behind two laptops and two kaos pads, Vincent seems to drop at least ten pounds per live set. Out dancing your audience is a rare thing by Vincent seems to do it effortlessly, destroying the competition with ease. It’s an experience and with her seemingly prolific studio tendencies, you’re very likely to see new Vincent in the very near future.

Eike König is the founder and leader of a group consisting of creative, talented, international graphic designers located in a backyard near the famous Bergmannstraße in Berlin called Hort. They have gathered a lot of international fame by working for the Nike Basketball Campaign in the US with Lebron James and actually designing Booka Shade‘s identity, the album for Berlin rapper Sido and a lot of other artists. Eike König supposedly hasn’t just created one of the most innovative design studios in Europe, he has also created a professional creative playground for himself.

Everywhere I look, people are making things out of flocked wallpaper. Velvety and old-fashioned, it appeals to our sense of decadence and indulgence. There is something wonderfully cavalier about a metallic or velvety wall, something delicate and reminiscent of a fancier era. This has bled into clothing [www.anthropologie.com] bedding, picture frames, t-shirts, wallets, journals [www.etsy.com] and even now companies are reproducing flocked wallpaper in exciting colors. I covet the red and gold one below:

Greeting cards are another example of this phenomenon, as are pajamas. As trends go, I’m for this one to stick around awhile, as it seems to speak to me.

Christoph Chemin is a young artist currently living in Berlin and is sort of a master of all forms of artistic expression. After he studied graphic design at Les Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, he turned to the field of publishing and became art director of plenty of different design agencies in Paris. But that was not enough for him, so he wrote a book, Les Bourreaux, with his 23 years of life experience. The same year he published two more novels and by 2004 he quit all of his jobs to become a full-time artist. And as before, he has not confined himself to just one way of expressing himself but uses everything imaginable for his art. From text to visual, dance to artistic performance, drawing to photography, set design to installations, video to cinema, Chemin uses everything he needs to break the boundaries of expression.

I spend all day on the Internet, mostly reading. I’ve had to get glasses. Those flashing and pop-up ads give me a headache. But there are a few sites that are doing text on the Internet right. Exhibit A: The Bold Italic. The Bold offers up tales of the city (it’s San Francisco specific at the moment) through the lens of what they’re calling “bold locals”- their writers. Each article is displayed on one page with story-specific design. It looks good, there’s care in the presentation, and it makes reading a more pleasant experience.

Boing Boing is doing something similar with their features. I find it very difficult to transition from reading pithy posts to longer investigations within the same blog template. To me, design makes a big difference. Boing Boing’s feature layouts signal that you’ll want to stay a while.

And when all else fails, there’s always Readability. Readability will banish ads and unwanted pictures from junk-heavy pages. It pulls just the text forward and renders it in the font of your choosing. I recently added the button to my browser and have found an excuse to use it almost every time I open a new tab.