A curated collection of creative things and interesting thoughts. Some of it, ours. The rest, collected carefully from the online and offline worlds. Published in public interest by Jokar. Read more about the blog here.
The idea in the commercial domain is like a baby. But … you are the nanny.
Yes, you care immensely about it, and know what’s best for it. Remember though, it belongs to the agency, its mother and the client, its father. It is with them that it will go out in the world, holding each one’s hand, swinging with joy in between.
Yes, there is a possibility that it may get pulled to either side. Or might get torn apart to shreds in the process.
You will cry. You will shout. You will want to save it with every ounce of strength left in you. But you will be left with only one choice, a choice you will hate from the very core of your being.
And that is, to look away. Sad but true.
Listen, it was never your baby to begin with. It can never be.
So why not give birth to your own baby? Be the parent. Raise it, nurture it to the best of your abilities. Give it the upbringing it deserves. And set it free in the world. For others to see it. For others to savour it. For others to live with it.
That’s the way it is. That’s the way it should be.
Go, start a side project today. May the power be with you.
Mike Monteiro pulls no punches in Ruined by Design. The part where he writes about design education, he shows us that it isn’t just broken—it’s setting people up for failure. I was surprised to know that it’s not just an India problem. The book is packed with uncomfortable truths, the kind that make you question what designers are really being trained for. It stings, but it’s necessary. Loved every bit of it. 🔥
When we read this bit, we couldn’t help ourselves. So made a poster out of it 🙂
Quite a few times, we read the brief in reverse. In our experience, we have always found the main points buried at the bottom.
What we like to absorb first is what is to be done, the main message, and when is it needed?
This way, we don’t get tired by the time we reach the essence of the brief.
Once we take in the main points, we can relax and read the context written in the beginning. Situation background, brand updates, business objectives and then some.
As for the buzzwords and other big terms used, that’s a separate article in itself.
We are in a time-starved work culture. Everything is needed “yesterday”.
So until the time briefs adapt to that*, this bottoms-up strategy works for us. If you find yourself nodding your head while reading this, I guess it might work for you too.
More than the HP, Titan and the Kissan logos, my ever-lasting memory of Sudarshan Dheer is munching channa in his office.
Besides art and typography, his favourite topics (in no particular order) were: the philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti; who designed the first shoelace?; why most clocks are round? He said, “Is it because the planet is round? Or is it because time has a circular continuous concept?”
And then it was time to step out for lunch. There were five options in Colaba: the Sea Lounge (whiskey sours and bumping into Dom Moraes by the window), Paradise (scotch broth and raspberry drink), Martins (beef and more beef), Kailash Parbat (chaat and dal pakwan).
“This is India,” he said, “When will our designs be able to reflect this?”
In case you were wondering, this was from a conversation between Sudarshan Dheer and Ramu Ramanathan. It’s an insightful article on Campaign India.
Once upon a time in a small agency, this happened.
The brainstorming session was over. The CCO turned back to his laptop. Team went back to their desks. A young art director, fairly new to the industry, hung around, leafing through the CCO’s collection of books on the other side of the cabin.
A while later, the CCO turned around, looked at him for a few seconds, and said.
“You know, you scare me.”
To which, the art director replied, “Why, what happened?”
He responded by saying, “You are an art director who reads. That’s dangerous.”
And the CCO laughed. The art director wondered why.
The CCO was from the copy side of things.
That incident gets me thinking to this day. The common belief goes that there are primarily two breeds in our line of work: Art and Copy.
But I think there is a third one too. Let’s call it the Hybreed.
The art person who is adept at copy too. Or the copywriter who has a natural talent in deciding the apt look for her or his ideas.
It doesn’t stop there. Hybreed has a broad range that goes beyond the standard art-copy combo.
So it could be a strategist from the design industry who is also very good at designing the perfect identity for a brand design project as well as making cool furniture using wooden planks and plumbing pipes.
Or the designer from the events industry who also gets the finer nuances of digital plus the ability to experiment with print advertising.
The combinations are endless.
Hey, there could very well be a person who has the ability to grasp problems across advertising, marketing, design, business, digital, illustration, animation, typography and what have you.
They may not be specialists, or generalists. Hybreeds are beyond these labels. Their focus is always on finding a clear definition of the problem, which would then inform the way ahead.
Now the usual way is to find a certain specialist and then let them do their thing, because the project calls for a certain way of thinking and executing. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Hybreeds don’t challenge that notion. But to completely detach oneself from those parts of the project one is not “great” at is something that they are uncomfortable with. They’d like to know the process, the little details involved, because they believe eventually it will help them solve problems in a better manner.
As I am writing this, I remember one more incident at a big network agency that someone told me about. There was this guy, definitely a Hybreed. He was good with art, copy, illustration and design. Comics too. The thing is the agency didn’t know what to do with him, since they had no specific title or role for this kind of a guy. And he had difficulty slotting himself into one wherever he applied. I hope he has found his place in the industry, and continues to create awesome stuff.
Specialists. Yes, they have their place in the world. But what about those people, who have an avid interest in some or all the disciplines that a certain industry offers? Not masters, but not generalists too, because they are curious, and they keep learning, slowly honing their skills whenever they can, and on whatever they can.
Our industry is all about being a sponge, isn’t it? Absorbing everything that goes around us and then creating magic with it.
How about absorbing everyone too, especially the Hybreed? Of course, in a way they deserve to be. Don’t feel threatened by them. Celebrate them. And the usual slots probably won’t do.
Which brings me back to the first incident. “You’re dangerous.”
There are two things for now, that I can think of. One’s great. The other, sad.
The great thing about ideas is the way they can flap their wings and fly the hell out of the nest that’s inside your head.
Yes, you have liberated them from your mind, but I feel that it’s your mind that’s truly liberated. Free. Vacant. Open. Ready to be occupied with at least 10 other ideas to take the place of those who are out there in the big bad world, doing their thing.
The sad part?
Well, it is the way we guard them. Like overprotective parents, afraid that someone will take them away from you. Maybe make them their own, and live a good life together that you had planned for them.
And you don’t even pause for a moment to think that when you do that, they are rotting. Not just your ideas, but your grey cells too.
What are you scared of? Someone who gets “inspired” from the idea you have released, and say, wins an award? So what?
What if you don’t have time to think about it, if and when that happens? Why not think from the other side! You will be too busy tinkering with your next batch of ideas. And the next one after that. And the next one.
Take solace from the fact the people who do that need people like you to be inspired from. And without your lot, they are nothing.
We are all borrowing from each other, getting inspiration from stuff around us all the time.
The amazing thing is that the world is always in flux, and you have the ability to always notice something that others would not. And that gives birth to a whole new bunch of ideas, all bubbling with excitement, ready to take off when you allow them to.
Many moons ago, a brilliant strategist and a fun human being once shared this gem: Whenever you come across a project with an unclear brief, remember to extract answers for the four main Ws: What, Who, Why and Where.
1. What are you aiming to do: sell, solve, tap, make?
2. Who will be seeing, reading, listening to this?
3. Why now?
4. Where will you use it?
This basic structure still comes in handy. And surprisingly, quite often. Especially useful during verbal and one-line briefs, which is quite the norm nowadays.
There are times when we insert an additional W between What and Who—When do you want this?
We love icons. Samples from an ongoing series on Noun Project called India in Icons. Download them here. If you want customised icons for your brand, contact us here.
This is a typeface we designed with the basic character set. The experiment was to see how our mind derives meaning from shapes. Where does a shape end, and the language begins? Have you already spotted the hidden message in the image? Too many questions? Ok, we will stop now 🙂
