Hasta La Creative!

A little about your outfit Zink. What do you do?
We are a design and branding agency located downtown Toronto.
We help new businesses and brands get started. We refresh and revolutionize existing ones for growth. 
Some of the services we offer are brand identity, digital, creative campaigns, packaging, retail & spatial design.

What made you start Zink?
We wanted to create a shop that would house strategy, creative and production all under one roof. 
It was a slow start but we were lucky to win an Emmy award for graphic design for the Super Bowl branding in the first year that we were in business. That helped us tremendously and opened many doors for us.

Tell us about your designers/animators. Did they go into fine art or design schools? How do you pick them up?
Canada has some of the worlds finest design and animation schools. Most of our designers that work at Zink have passed out from Toronto Design schools like OCAD ( Ontario College of Art and Design), Sheridan and George Brown. We also work with a global roster of freelance talent and have developed great working relationships with them over the years. 
We have close relationships with all the design schools in Toronto and have first access to the talent pool. We also keep an eye out for great talent from all over and try and bring them on board if the project requires it.

Can you tell us the process of building a design language for a brand?
Before we put pen to paper we really dig down and research the product or company we are branding.
Understanding the company, its philosophy and its core values are very important in building a brand, it helps you define a set of rules and create a genuine voice for the brand that should extend beyond the visual and reflect the attitude of the company. 
The message should be genuine and clear and consistent. Once this has been clearly identified the design language will flow.

How important is the focus on good design in Zink?
What we perceive as good design is a product of different qualities – functionality and aesthetics being a couple of them. Our expectations of what is good design are constantly changing. it’s important that functionality and aesthetics work together to produce a better experience. We tend to focus on that.

What does Zink do which sets it apart?
We are multidisciplinary in the true sense. We have a strong design, tech and post team in house. The collaboration helps us experiment, bounce off and test ideas in the early stages of production. 

Tell us something about designing for television.
Television design has changed over the years. The television used to be an escape in the past and the campaigns were long and extensive. 
This has changed – It has now become an extension of online viewing. UX and UI play an important role and the lines between web, OTT and cable have been blurred. I think the user experience at all touch points should be continuous and seamless. This affects how information and content is displayed and interacted with. The user should be capable of continuing the same visual journey across all devices.

Were there any particular role models for you when you grew up?
I did not have any role models but I have been influenced by numerous great artists and continue to do so. I’m especially attracted to contemporary artists and admire people who push the limits of their talents – Zaha Hadid, Jeff Koons, Basquiat, Terrence Malick and Hayao Miyazaki are just a few of the more popular ones.
Who was the most influential personality in your career in Brand Building?
I don’t think I can single out a one persion however my contemporaries have greatly influenced me. I have been fortunate to work, hang out and grow with some wonderful people that helped me develop and build lasting connections.

Do you work with any advertising agencies? Or mostly directly with brand teams at clients’ side?
Most of our projects are directly from clients. As a company, we are pretty agile and can take on projects at different stages of production. Since we have a strong design team agencies sometimes collaborate with us.

Any other Indian design firms that you admire?
I love the work of the interior design firm Sumessh Menon Associates. The work is strong, contemporary and has the right amount of Indian flavour. India is making headway in the digital space and I’m seeing a lot of cool new talent.

What advice do you have for aspiring creative professionals? Would you advise them to take on graphic design as a career option?
Our collective awareness of the importance of good design is at its peak and design is more integral to good business than ever before.
As the world moves into the next stage of complete automation we would need fresh thinking and bright minds to make our lives simpler.
It’s a great time to get into design but I think you should not confine yourself to only graphic design. As production processes get easier the borders between all types of design are disappearing allowing us to focus more on creativity and experience.

Who would your design team like to take out for dinner?
Elon Musk, Shonda Rhimes and the cute new receptionist down the hall

What’s on the company iPod?
it’s usually mixed bag or some random Spotify tunes.
Someone’s got to delete those annoying Christmas carols that keep popping up

Mac or PC?
Mac