Hasta La Creative!

Working as CD with Equus Red Cell. The ‘boing’ start-up sound of Mac is a must for my mornings. Hate to be detached from my scribble note pad for too long. Need to learn one new thing everyday. Last did a small jig inside the closed door of my cabin when my work earned a place in the Communication Arts Design Annual 2011.

Why are you into Advertising?
Always had an intuition that my carreer would be in an industry associated with art. So advertising it is.

??Did you attend school for fine art or design or Communications?
Self taught and was mentored by Anurag Hira.

??Tell us about  your recent work campaign?
We recently finished a very tactical and factual campaign for Matrix SIM cards on data usage costs. The challenge was to make them look interesting and easy to interpret in spite of some extremely heavy info. The campaign’s look and feel was ‘infographical’, a style that is not used in too many print ads here.We had fun doing it and the client is rather pleased with the outcome.

Were there any particular role models for you when you grew up? 
Hergé had a big influence on me, his ability to detail every little comic box is something that is very inspiring. I remember spending a lot of time just looking at some of his bigger illustrations, depicting some chaotic scene of Tintin’s adventures. And hey! as a kid I always wanted to pack a punch like Rocky Balboa. Does that count too?

Who was the most influential personality on your career in Advertising?
Can’t really point out one person or factor that influenced my career, but Swapan Seth did play a big role by endowing me with a large responsibility at a fairly young age.

Where do you get your inspiration from?
From everyday things, currently obsessed with typography and flower motifs on ‘Bengali sweet boxes’ had bigger obsessions with truck art and kitsch match boxes before. Also the works Hanoch Piven, Michael Perry and David Shrigley never cease to surprise me.

Tell us something about the Equus Red Cell work environment.
We are a very small team who loving briefs as much as we  love crushing beer cans ! But honestly, the current team is the most hardworking lot that I have ever worked in Equus with.

Tell us about your first job in Advertising.
It was in Contract, Kolkata. People were extremely helpful and everybody was very eager to teach me. This is where I learnt the importance of typography from my mentor, he could distinguish between fonts by just looking at a comma!

What do you think of the state of Print advertising right now. At least ?here in India, the released work is most often too sad.
Some work are but not all. I feel its still the most challenging medium to create work for. Moreover in today’s day its best if brands have their fingers dipped in other mediums of media as well, digital, integrated, innovative etc

Do you think brands who’s advertising wins awards, do well in the market???
Yes, I do.

What advice do you have for aspiring creative professionals???
Ditch the mouse when you are thinking, grab your scribble pad instead!

Your dream project?
Would love to a work on an integrated campaign for Google Chrome!

Your upcoming campaigns, if you can talk about it
Currently working on a very interesting brand re launch of a movie-rating portal called Desimartini.com, run by HT Media. The product differentiator is that the site showcases the Public’s Verdict on latest movie releases (primarily Bollywood) and that enables us to pick a flick!

Who would you like to take out for dinner?
Hmmm… the delectable Mr. Johnny Depp

What’s on your iPod?
Adele, Adele and Adele…with a little bit of Snow Patrol

Mac or PC?
Mac, always.