What is design? My Beginnings…
There is no better place to begin our exploration than a dictionary, so lets begin… According to the Oxford dictionary, ‘design’ is
A plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or other object before its made.
However, each field has a different perspective to this word ‘design’, in graphic designing term it’s the sketch as well as the end product. But, wouldn’t a simple representation of a building or an object result in a monotonous output? Here is where the secret ingredient comes in, something other fields don’t wholly rely on unlike us, and that’s ‘creativity’. Now what is this? Back to the dictionary, oxford reads:
The use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness.
So here’s the secret, as designers we make sketches but with a hint of creativity and so this design becomes a unique piece of art. Any form of art is passed down through generations, often through a mentor who teaches essential skills and techniques; eventually the learner grasps and incorporates their creativity into it. And that’s just my view of how the art of design is passed down.
Art was never something that came very easy for me, let it be sketching, painting or graphic designing. Though the art never embraced me, I always enjoyed creating art; the joy of having created something of your own is unexplainable! Simple things like sketching, calligraphy, painting, paper crafts, gave me great pleasure. I had the desire to learn graphic designing, however it was very easy to find to find someone who would teach me, during my hunt for internship and wanting to learn a new skill altogether; it wasn’t so easy.
That’s when I came to know about Report Bee and Jack, the only person who kept the smile on his face even after I told him I had no experience in graphic designing and yet I would like to learn. That’s when the journey began, I met a great team of highly talented designers: Jack, Jeevan Siva, Jeevanantham Jiva, Anantha Natarajan and Daniel Don. Jack gave us tasks and then on we would keep bothering the other guys to help us out and they would explain so patiently with a big smile. That always left me stunned, why would someone want to share his or her experience in the first place and do it willingly and happily.
Since my internship was just about a month, also interrupted with the festive season I really did not expect to learn much. To my surprise I was able to create my own work on Illustrator and I was actually satisfied with my output unlike my other endeavours with other forms of art. I’m so thankful to this bunch of mentors who had taught me more than a form art; but also teamwork, disciple and humbleness. So here’s the output, a couple of my works:
I got to meet some of the former employees, yes they all actually meet up for a chat; the way they stick together though they have moved is simply inspirational. It takes a lot of teamwork and leadership, I would say held together by Jack, to keep the team together and remember one of their stepping stone with great regard. Many thanks and hats off to the team!
