Since I'm not soliciting your business yet, I'll reserve the right to share my work here, which anyway is not relevant to your viewing. Instead, i share below WHAT I BRING to each design service offered, which may be a worthwhile read if you would like to know the blend of ingredients i work with and the flavour of result i aim for!
Branding Methodology
A brand is what the customers describe it to be. Their perceptions, expectations, positioning, and aspirations define the reality of what any brand is. To influence this reality, a company needs to craft EVERY detail of visual experience that is viewed by the customer. From Font, Colour, Spacing and Alignment to Forms, Graphics, Layouts and Communication, there is a long checklist of details, for indeed, the devil is in the details!
My job is to make discerning choices of every such aspect that goes into anything visual from a brand, internal or external, and ensure there are the 3 factors I insist are critical to a fulfilling brand experience for customers – Consistency, Aspiration and Entertainment. For over 30 years, I have professionally gained the experience of multiple markets, management style, materials and manufacture to help brands put their best foot forward in a wide variety of digital and physical ways, blending every hand-crafted skill possible to make the end result unique and iconic.
Graphic Design Methodology
According to me, the greatest tool outside of the human mind and body is the pencil. It’s perfectly designed to a point of no further improvement possible, can be erased to correct and yet helps illustrate the point to be made. Everything else manmade to aid design is an overkill that dulls human skill replacing it with the dreaded word – AI! Still, I do use computers as a last-mile enabler of graphic intent, with my primary software-of-use being CorelDraw, apart from some photo editing software. I do not geek out with coding, web development, Digital Marketing, SEO, etc. There’s plenty of farm hand for hire out there to clean the stables, I ride the high horse if you please, and insist truly unique art, is not computer assisted but completely hand-drawn.
Cartooning Methodology
Ever wonder about the coincidence of the word “heart” having “art” in it? It’s with reason then that a hand-illustrated approach still builds uniqueness for a brand identity more distinctly than using photographic tools or software. My specialization however is animal art, which I call Faunatoons. As a cartoonist, I have :
- Created self-titled columns in national publications such as Times of India, Economic Times & Travel Plus (India Today Group)
-Conducted events, brand launches, fund-raisers & animal welfare meets
- Designed logos for numerous organizations and brands spanning NGO’s, conservation groups, corporate companies, B2C products, commercial ventures and educational initiatives.
- Authored a series of illustrated books that provide humorous social commentary on our country with a unique animal-oriented perspective being the velvet glove on the iron fist of critique.
Copywriting Methodology
I find the term hilarious – for the one thing written content for brands should never do, is copy! When you submit to AI-generated content, it truly remains ‘copied’ writing, so the way to make your design ‘speak’ to the customer is to write with wit, flair and uniqueness. As a cartoonist, my pun extends to both prose and poetry.
For brands, i utilize classic, edgy or quirky styles of communication to thread their collateral with consistent intent via words. My personal favourite styles include limericks, rhymes and crisp, dramatic slogans. Get in touch and you’ll know how there is nothing copied in the way i copywrite!
Photography Methodology
Photography has intrigued me for over 35 years, since when I held my first SLR camera back in the 80s, for its ability to convert something captured with one eye shut, into producing results that get both eyes open wide! Today, armed with a varied set of quick-firing ‘guns’ to shoot with, I venture into clicking images as part of my design solutions, in categories such as street photography, people portraits, nature images and candid scenes, preferably black & white and outdoors.
I also enjoy telling tales, for isn’t design all about building a story that entertains while informing? My stories remain mostly in the world of fauna and travel, but occasionally, when inspired, I dabble in corporate short stories.
Event Design Methodology
Being an accessory & product designer by training, I have kept in touch with materials and manufacture with occasional projects that define physical interaction – whether Product Design, Displays & Dispensers, Visual Merchandising, Store Facades, Standardized Retail Design etc. I work to bring quirk in design, that elevates the interaction at the event to entertainment, aiding in easier recall by being a smile inducing experience.
I have fashioned retail documents that standardize fixtures, fittings and facades for pan-Indian roll out. Clubs, Restaurants and even a temple interior is part of what I've been fortunate to dabble in, often in collaboration with leading architects, refining my understanding and skills.
My favourite interactive design projects include display units, dispenser design and exhibition stalls.