Why is curation valuable? Deblina Moulik, Executive Producer and Manager of Curation, weighs in.
Deadline after deadline, the Blink Curation team is crushing it. Oscillating between analyzing and digesting millions of assets, both consumer-generated and custom content, this team has proven time and time again that curation is a fundamental tool for how audiences experience brands and companies.
“Curation compliments content, and this is vital in a world that is image-centric,” Deblina explains. Starting out as a photo editor at Blink in 2018, Deblina Moulik’s dedication and focus promoted her to management status in the curation room. “Visual guidance is a primary challenge that companies face. They start with a diagram of what the product will look like and we come in with that guidance. I’ve built a solid team comprised of individuals who come from a strong visual culture and background in photography. So, we bring that guidance and directionality.”
For those new to curation, especially as it pertains to visuals not bound by the walls of museums and galleries, it can be quite a demanding operation. “We are trained to look at mass amounts of data and be able to process it at one glance. Sometimes we look at 50 images simultaneously and will have to extract the information that we need to be able to select that perfect image.”
Client-facing relations are central to Deblina’s job. “We are really grateful to be working for a host of really exciting clients and the relationship comes in understanding their needs. In addition, we need to know what their priorities are, and what their expectations are, so those expectations could be met and exceeded.”
Deblina’s listed her five key takeaways to keep in mind when curating for a brand, company or product:
Goal: What does this product hope to achieve? For example, an educational product will look very different from a travel app.
Aesthetic: How can we present it visually to attain the aforementioned goal?
Audience: Who is our intended audience or market? For example, curation for the Japanese market will be distinctly different from curation for the French market
Structure: How can we incorporate client needs, content strategy, and creative input into our workflow design for optimum productivity?
Priorities: Whether it is the timeline or the volume or the aesthetics that is a priority for our clients, how can we deliver bespoke curation for a particular product?
“I never know what my day is going to look like,” Deblina remarks. “Especially since there are several active projects running at the same time. My personal workflow is just getting done whatever needs to be done, and putting client expectations above all.”
Thought of the day: Be thoughtful in your execution. Take the time to really look at a challenge and find a methodical and impactful solution.
