Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Then and Now.


So I'm working now.

I'm working at a Brand Consulting and Design company called The Brand Bee. I'm the Brand Designer over there and I work with a couple of other designers, a content writer and a brand strategist.

"We brand and design your dreams. And we do it in style."

Like I talked about, my plans were to move out of Delhi. Get a job somewhere else. But since we've already established that life is awesome, I decided to stay here and take up the job.

I started out as a freelance designer there. I took up a project to design their whole identity. From their visual style, logo to their website.

After a lot of research and experimentation, I finalized two concepts and presented them.

And since I started this blog with the hopes of showcasing my work but ended up talking about my life and other pointless things more, I'll share some of my work-in-progress and initial designs. Some of the concepts were rejected and some were developed further and became a part of their brand identity.

Concept 2, Options along with the color scheme

Concept Digital Collaterals


Business Collaterals concept 2; was rejected due to being too colorful

Webdesign preview
Now I'm their Brand Designer and provide creative brand and design solutions for various clients.

You can check out their facebook page right here. Or follow them on twitter here.
Also check out their website which I designed and was coded and completed by this awesome guy right here. The site wouldn't be complete without his work.

Keep an eye out on the company's facebook page for updates and behind-the-scenes of various projects and stuff. Don't worry it'll be interesting. I'll be sure to include some youtube cat videos so now you have no reason to miss out on it.

So my work life. I just said work life. Professional life. However I word it, it's not gonna change the fact that I'm still not used to saying that. Things changed so much in the past couple of months and I couldn't control any of them. If I time travel and go back two months and meet my past self and tell him how things'll be, he's gonna lose his shit.

And that's despite the fact that I always wanted to meet my future self and have been secretly preparing for it my entire life.

Who knew I'd be working 9-10 hours a day, 6 days a week? And then work some more after getting back home to make sure projects don't add-up the next day?

Who knew I'd be coming up with 4 identity concepts in 2 days for clients? Not to mention that's just one of three to four simultaneous projects that I work on. Is this how the design industry operates? Almost all clients who approach us with work wanted it done yesterday. It always happens.

Us - Ok this all seems cool. So when do you need everything done? A deadline maybe?
Client - Um..yeah, we're on a tight schedule and we kinda wanted it done last week itself.
Us - Ok cool, we'll just whip out our time machine. Extra charges for that btw.

Now I get it that the clients may need everything done urgently, but still, my productivity and creativity'll take a serious hit if I continuously work on stuff.

I'm not complaining. Instead, I'm trying to make sense of things. I'm working. I'm working, hoping to meet deadlines all while trying to catch up with life. Things are moving at a blurring speed and I just want it all to slow down, just for a few hours.

My mum asked me after a couple of days of my new job. She asked me if I was happy. That if I had made the right decision. I told her yes I was.

But honestly, I didn't know. I swear to god, I didn't know. Not that I hate my job or anything but I really don't know. I'm working, gaining experience and I have a good time with the people I met at work.

The people I met at work. They're not what I expected. And that's a good thing.


I'm adjusting to the this new life and trying to make time for myself.

Time. Fuck, that's all it's all about isn't it?

But what do I feel towards all this? What do I think of this new life? I'm numb. No matter how much I try to think, I just don't know how I feel. Hell I don't even know what I'm supposed to feel. I just can't seem to put a finger on it. And I'm not even gonna make a that-what-she-said joke right now.

So yeah, I don't know.

It's hard to explain without coming off as a cheap attention-whore.

But what I do know for sure? I still freakin' love Dexter. Season 7's premiere was all that I expected and more. It didn't disappoint. Now I'll look forward to Mondays.

Sounds increasingly cheezy but it feels good to know somethings never change. At least for now.

"Are you....a serial killer?" "Yes."
Pure epic.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Tides

Since it's pretty much a tradition now to start out by saying how long I haven't posted for, I'll just get that out of the way.

4 Months.

And yes, I'm still alive and kicking.

College is over. I graduated. And now I'm standing on the precipice of the next stage. It doesn't matter if I'm ready or not. I have to jump in. I mean I have to at some point right? Figured now is as good a time as ever.

A lot can happen in four months. Hell, a lot did happen in the last four months. 120 days. One-third of a year. I'd say that's more than enough time for things to happen.

You've dreamed before right? About what you'll be doing. About what you want to do. So did I. My plan from the start was to say goodbye to Delhi at the first chance I got and just get the hell out. Start over. Start anew. Totally independent. Totally free.


So I got a few good offers in Delhi itself. I hadn't started applying to places outside of Delhi as I was kinda pre-occupied with a freelance project I had taken up. But I already had decided to leave. I was so focused and excited to start my own journey. But I guess I wasn't being practical enough. Wasn't thinking clearly. Then after a bit of introspection, I had to decide. I had to weigh in a lot of factors and decide if I wanted to stay here or ignore everything and do what I wanted.

So I did what every sane person should do. I created a huge deal out of this and made the decision. Of course the whole thing had to seem dramatic as well. Knowing me, how could it not?


I'm staying. In Delhi. I'll be working with a pretty cool, up & coming brand consulting and design company. Their website will be up sometime next week so I'll talk in detail about them then.
I'll be working with a team of other designers and I'm really looking forward to that.

It's gonna be a proper work environment. And I've to wear formals. Take it from a guy who's worn trousers for just 2 days of his life, it's pretty nerve-racking. Even intimidating, I'd say. But it should be fun.

I'll be stepping out of my comfort zone, in a persona I'm not used to and will have to coordinate and work with a team to tackle different design projects for different companies.


So yeah, I'm putting off my plan to move out for now. And I think hope I made the right call. I'll be staying back in Delhi. Work in a cool company, gain some experience.


But I'm not gonna regret my decision, that's for sure.
And I'm gonna say bring it on.


You don't always get what you want. Life's not always what you want it to be. People say everything happens for a reason. I call bullshit on that. While it's true to some extent, it's pretty much the worst excuse a person could give. It's something that's said to ease things. To make someone feel better. Destiny? Everything in my life already predetermined? Just the very thought of that freaks me out.

As soon as I finished college, I went to Chennai for a month. Stayed there as long as possible, came back a day before my graduation show. Speaking of predetermined things, I had my palm read. I was at the beach when this old lady walks up to me and asks me if I wanted to know my future. I was more interested in finding out how she's gonna do that rather that what she was gonna say.

The first thing she told me was that I was not the type to listen to anyone. That, I usually do what I wanted. Fine, she deduced that from my weird (read, bad) hairdo and my tattoo. Not impressed lady.

Then she said a lot of other things which weren't really true but two things she said were interesting. She said something important would happen before the end of the ninth month. That I'll get what I always wanted.

Second, she told me that 'the one' for me was right in front of my eyes and I just needed to really look. Now I don't know if she's a fan of super cheezy stuff crust romcoms or she said it just for the hell of it.

Or maybe she meant it literally and was talking about herself.

Nevertheless, it was clever of her to say that. You know where I'm going with this right? Inception.

It's interesting how people work. It's interesting how a person chooses to present himself differently in different situations. It's interesting how some people live for others. It's interesting how much or how little they change. It's interesting to see others sacrifice so much while you're scared and selfish. It's interesting how some people are just irresistible while some repulse the hell outta you. It's interesting how nights seem longer than usual somehow.

And it's interesting how someone can hold on to something they never had in the first place.


Monday, April 23, 2012

It's time for a change.

Remember when I started out with Koncept33? I made this little album on my facebook, this one here. That was two years ago.

Good times

And in those two years, I've been through two website redesigns, got featured in one of those web-designs-of-the-week thingy and designed LOTS of stuff under K33.

And a year ago, I decided to start this blog. My first post was a stupid one about which platform I should blog on. Tumblr or Blogger. I chose to do it here because of comments. Blogger supported comments while Tumblr, by default, did not. I later found out that Disqus could easily give me a solution to that problem, but I decided to stick around here because I had already gained a few readers and a steady daily view count.

Damn, just realized it's been more than a year since I started this thing. I can't believe I stuck around to keep this thing going. Thank you followers and all the people on K33's fb page!

You've probably heard me say I'm in my final semester like a thousand times already. While that is true, it also means I'll be done with college by June end, provided I don't mess up my current semester. Then comes the next big stage. And for that I've decided that I'll be redesigning my whole design identity which will showcase my newer, more mature work. It'll also feature my final studio project, which I'm currently working on.

With this new design identity, there will be no use of the old one. So I guess this is like a goodbye to Koncept 33 Designs.

I'll be taking down the website the day I finish college.

Even though it'll be the end of the design part, Koncept 33 will take up the role of my personal blog where I'll talk about daily shenanigans, stuff, my life, some more stuff and of course, Yvonne Strahovski. Oh and did I mention that will be on Tumblr? It's goodbye blogspot. Sad I know.

It's funny because I'm making this whole thing seem so much more dramatic than it actually is. But before you say that, go create a website or a blog or pretty much anything you love. If you're into fashion design, create a dress. If you're a product design student, create a model of something. Or if you're an engineer....well I'm sorry for you.

Whatever you create, keep it around and share it with the world for two years. You'd grow attached to it too because it was something you made. A direct result of your passion for the field.

Anyway, that's about it I guess. I came up with a concept and I'm happy it's evolving into something else. And satisfied that it entertained a few people along the way, especially when it came to my embarrassing stuff.

Oh and I'll be talking about my final studio project in the next few days because I actually need your help with it so stick around.