Hasta La Creative!

A curious visual communication designer, Saumya is an illustrator and is currently also driving The India Craft Project that explores creative realms in rural India with a firm belief in collaborative energy for social impact. Her wanderings over the years have introduced her to beautiful art forms like Theyyam in Kerala, Kavad Katha and Pabuji ka Phad in Rajasthan, Ajrakh block printing in Gujarat and more, as she’s grown to envision design with a social fabric. From Advertising to Brand Strategizing to Social Communication Design, she enjoys illustrating people in their spaces – equipped with her 10 Rupees black pens and fuelled by orange juice!

Why are you a Graphic Designer? How did you focus so much on graphic illustrations?
During my 10th and 12th class board preparatory leave was my most creative time. I would illustrate intricate sketches to distract myself from the stress and anxiety of these hyped, bigger than life (at the time) exams. I became organized in order to fit in illustrating with studying and it did increase my efficiency considerably. So while initially, I was apprehensive of ‘training’ my hobby towards ‘Graphic Design’, I was lucky to come across a broadening prospect of ‘Visual Communication Design’. For me it extended possibilities of story telling and went beyond aesthetics as I unlearned my biases.

Social communication is an important part of the umbrella of Visual communication Design. For altruistic purposes this branch of design seeks to analyze beyond the ’What’. It’s more interested in pursuing the ’How’ and ’Why’ for actualizing social change and explores a decisive role in morphing practices for better.

Did you attend school for fine art or design?
Yes, I graduated from Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore in 2016 with a degree in B.Des, with a specialization in Visual Communication and Strategic Branding. Srishti has imbued in me ‘The A to Z Approach’ – idea to strategy to process emphasis and the final product was our personal responsibility. Design was never a subject, which could be taught or contained within the walls of the elite institution, but more of a ‘philosophy’, a way of life that coloured our perspective to see a myriad of images. The eclectic approach had a liberating effect and leaves deliberate emphasis on concept and innovation more than the final output. We had a remarkably creative and homogenous climate, which allowed the creative juices to flourish. Its active and collaborative learning was an exciting experience, working in groups as an integral course design strategy. Not only did it enhance the depth of learning and individual engagement, one also experienced the added benefit of improving communication, interpersonal leadership, diplomatic and teamwork skills and the shared bonhomie and stories made the grueling hours so bearable. Eventually I evolved individually and dramatically as I opened to diverse opinions, ideas and styles to better my own understanding on various subjects, and to enhance my facilitation and communication skills while trying my hands at various branches of design.

You also do Brand Strategy. How did that evolve along with design?
A good designer is one who engages in problem solving. You’re not designing for yourself, but for an audience and it always has a purpose. Whether it’s a behavior change campaign for smoking, design identity for brand communication, communicating a story, etc. – It follows a thorough process of asking questions like – ‘Why do you exist?’ ‘What do you do?’ and ‘How will you achieve it?’ as Simon Sinek puts forth in his concept of ‘The Golden Circle’.

Branding is the bread earner for Visual Communication Designers. It’s an exciting and elaborate process of understanding a brand’s value system, audience, purpose and then gets on to the logo design and identity accordingly. This came quite naturally to me and I love to illustrate that through stories while working on brand identities for a campaign or a company.

Contact Advertising, Asian Paints, Whack Thwack, Art Beyond Borders, Quicksand (Delhi) and The Quint are a few places I have had the true pleasure of working at. Each of these places has had a distinctive style of working. So you can’t essentially separate the ‘strategy’ from design and Brand strategy is most important in this day and age of competing products and services. The strategy of putting your story forward through a product or a service is what differentiates a brand from its competitors.

Were there any particular role models for you when you grew up?
Well since it’s been quite a journey I can’t point to one person, incident or place for that matter. Born in the ‘not so’ pristine environs of the military hospital of Gwalior I’ve had a lot to learn from a devoted and Industrious mother and a dedicated, workaholic father serving in the Indian Armed Forces. The artist’s business is with the imagination and I signed in when I joined my undergrad program in art and design education at Srishti Institute of Art Design Technology, Bangalore. This journey perhaps is what has shaped me. Over the years my commitment to my passion has become my personal identity.

Growing up, I adapted to the permanency of a gypsy life. Spent my schooling years in seven schools, some known and some not very familiar cities, trying to mingle with different people being slightly introverted. Through the shifting and the getting used to, the attachment and the disorientation, I’ve had my constants. I consider myself fortunate to have been around people with diverse opinions, Ideas and styles to better my own understanding on various subjects and to build my own ‘Story Bank’. My engagement growing up has been with ‘Imagination’. Meeting the wonderful facilitators and peers at design school also harnessed my imagination, curiosity and empathy to express or be able to find solutions where needed.

Tell us something about the India Craft Project.
As a social communication designer it is naturally inherent to respond and to travel to interiors, get a hands-on field-testing chance and help innovate fresh mediums to regurgitate life skills. The challenge of live research, conceiving solutions or even learning stories from people has matured the process in which I approach any research. So sitting in one place behind a screen isn’t the most exciting thought for my design process and me.
Following a collaborative design process, I started driving The India Craft Project; envisioning a community that experiences and explores artistic realms with traditional handicrafts. Through meet-ups with artisans, content writers, photographers, travellers and designers, even with bikers and brainstorming with them has been an enriching & rewarding experience. We found that it’s essential to keep a consistently higher learning curve to empower our craftsmen through creative exposure to keep them professionally motivated as a stakeholder. It’s been valuable to get diverse insights and constructive criticism on different scenarios of this complex problem to be able to approach it in a wholesome way. We curate gifts that are handcrafted and build experiential tours for creative professionals and change-makers. Social media has been a great source to reach out, share the vision and invite people to be a part of it in different capacities.
In a country, which is home to more than 7 million craftspeople and is known for its ‘culture’ and ‘diversity’, In a highly industrialized and globalized world – we realize the need for a relationship-based approach instead of a transaction-oriented approach alone. Here, currency is not just about the monetary measure, it’s the creative people, the ones driving it and the lives driven by it.

When did you start freelancing?
I used to freelance between jobs but it can be tough when you’re new in a city and haven’t networked enough. Once I was more clued up on some clients and decided to give more time to TICP I decided to quit my job in 2018 and start freelancing part time to work on my company and sustain myself.

Was there any time when you wanted to quit graphic design?
Not for me. Visual communication is such an umbrella term that once you start exploring, there’s no end. Illustrating was something I did anyway to destress and express myself. Mixed media is even more exciting. Maybe because I never looked at graphic design to do with just Photoshop and illustrator. It was more about the story telling and then about its form for me. Unfortunately the scope of work mostly is to churn out template graphics in most companies, for time and number bound marketing and quantity more than quality. But you’ve got to find a balance – Once for the pocket and once for the soul. It is an art at the end of the day.

Are many advertising agencies hiring graphic designers? Do you work more with agencies or publishers or direct clients? Do you think Clients are opening up to keeping aside a decent respectable budget for design work? Do you think clients understand that they need to invest in Design as a communication tool and also to cut the clutter, and that good design comes at a price? Do you have clients who give you steady work or do you advertise for new clients often?
To put it briefly, advertising and media companies are mostly looking for quick graphic designers. There are specific briefs to work around and the final judge is a client from a non design background (you know what I mean) or they need time bound material that needs to go out quickly, respectively. While in a design studio there may be limited space for designers (since most of them are smaller studios) but have creative projects and some creative liberty from the client –those are few in number.

While it’s a mix, I work through an agency for brands. I’m picky about my projects so I can make time for The India Craft project, my personal projects as an illustrator and make time for my jazz dance trainings. While freelancing can be erratic, I chose to leave my job to do things I love so I try to balance that and you make constant corrections to keep that in check to be honest.

How do you market yourself?
I update my work on Behance and Instagram, so that’s where I usually get projects from, otherwise personal contacts or friends of friends. Once it’s updated online I recommend you share it on linkedin and Facebook. The audiences on all these platforms are different and you should explore all of them. You may also share on whatsapp and whatsapp stories if you like but try to curate it tastefully. The more respect you give to how you present your work the more value people will see in it and appreciate it.

Any other Indian visual designers who you admire?
Thanks to social media there’s been a pleasant exchange of creative content and illustrations and it’s very encouraging to see different styles and opinions being expressed visually. While many brilliant young minds have come through with their distinctive styles I’d like to name the one who inspired me to draw stories, R.K Laxman.

What advice do you have for aspiring creative professionals? Would you advise them to take on graphic design as a career option?
It’s up to the individual’s interest and personal goals. It’s definitely creatively simulating to be around designers or be one. There’s no end to learning and scope of work if you choose to be flexible is huge. It’s better to get experience in print and online design both and get in touch with being hands on with your design. Work on paper, brainstorm with people around you and design for a purpose.

Mac or PC?
To start with I had a very well working Dell Inspiron but after college I shifted to a Mac for better colour and display but I’m attached to both.

Who would you like to take out for dinner?
My family!

What’s on your iPod?
I invested in my Wacom tablet instead!

What’s your Twitter Handle? Instagram?
Orange__blues