Interview – 10 emerging web designers from India (part2) : Manoj Paul, Raycreativ.com

After hibernation of around 2 months, i am back with a bang, with the interview series. Past gruelling 2 months showed me how painful it is to identify real talent. Living in a nation with the second highest population in the whole world, this is a statement which may surprise you. But, it is a matter of fact. Passionate talent is a very rare existence here. But its really commendable to see some really top notch talents mushrooming here and making it to the forefront.

Following the passionate entrepreneur from Kerala, the second featured designer is a veteran, with some stunning and interesting accolades in his career as a designer spanning around 22 years, which was not a smooth road for him all the way. His career is an example of how perseverance and hard work can work together when a lot of passion is mixed in the right proportion, to it.

About the designer

Manoj paul (http://www.raycreativ.com), born in Kottayam, Kerala, but brought up in the suburbs of Chennai is a 43 year old, coming from a middle class family with a very modest lifestyle. With an average education – just a diploma in printing and a degree (BBA) for namesake, he had a high ladder to climb, which restricted him from having too many friends, as his professional life kept him too busy in meeting its demands. He is married with two kids. One aged 12 (daughter) and the other 5 (son). The creative blood, Manoj says is a family trait, and his son is on his way to stardom by appearing in various ad films. Something which makes any father proud of.  (www.raypaulmanoj.com is his portfolio website)

After diploma (in printing), Manoj started as an apprentice at an offset printing press. He worked there for 6 months without any pay just to gain experience, then switched jobs and joined another press as a shift supervisor. After a few years shifted to pre-press and worked as production supervisor for some more years. This phase brought him face to face with people from all walks of life. A hard lesson in people management. Then a short stint in Dubai where he also started a job in an ad agency as a graphic designer. Then Manoj came back to India, to be part of a start up – A design studio specializing in print and later moved into web. The journey progressed and now he works as a Creative Director for a french company who is the preferred agency for Facebook Apps all over Europe. Endorsed by Facebook.

Manoj is a music lover, plays guitar, and once even played for a heavy metal band for a few years and won a few competitions. He also was the lead guitarist and back up vocalist there.

He has solid experience in print design (old school and digital), web design, motion graphics, and believes Adobe CS is like a body part. Always in action. His strengths are conceptualizing, creating artworks, project/team management and so on…. http://www.raycreativ.com is his online portfolio.

Now lets get close with Manoj, the veteran designer!

First of all, thanks for taking time out for this interview session, and sharing some of your achievements, experience and advice to the budding community of designers.

You are a person with a very diverse experience (ranging from print to web). What were the key challenges you faced in migrating to a domain as diverse as web, from a comparatively standalone field of print design?

Ranjith, thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my experience. Appreciate it!

Well, print is definitely not a standalone field. A discussion on that is beyond the scope of this one.  Its as diverse as web in its own way. From inland letters to newspapers, the spectrum is large. So, moving from one large platform to another did throw some challenges. The biggest one was mindset. One can’t design for the web like print. There are two aspects to consider: 1. Technical and 2. Visual.

Technically, keeping the overall page size to optimum level was a big challenge. During the 90s we were on 56K dial-up connections and average page size should limit to 60K almost at 1:1 ratio between page size and bandwidth. Then, the color palette was limited to the web safe colors gamut. Finally, hard coding was the way to go most of the time. On a positive note, it gave me a good grip on basics. And my skill level grew as the platform evolved over the years.

Visually, the layout of pages cannot look like a brochure. Especially while working in smaller screen resolutions, it was really a challenge to keep information above the line. So the ‘Designing for Print” mindset had to change. The way to do it was to take a break between projects and give myself the mental space to make the shift. I’d usually get out of office, grab a coffee and then get back with a webbie’s mindset.

One other challenge was training fellow designers to adapt. Not an easy one. But eventually happened after a few sessions. I was lucky to work with a team of very creative guys. Why I say this is, today there is a general misconception that knowing a few software tools qualifies one as a web designer. Wrong! A good web designer is the one who can conceptualize with a good level of creativity keeping in mind the client requirements and then use the tools as a medium of expression. Never let the tools get the better of you. They are part of you and not vice versa. In fact, one question I ask candidates in interviews is, “ If I don’t give you any tools how will you show me a design concept?” Most of them draw a blank! Sketch first! If you can’t put your thoughts on paper then chances are you won’t get the best out of yourself.

You started your career in design at a time when graphic designing was not at its best in the country, what were the hurdles that you had to overcome during that phase of your career?

You are right. Design was confined to the advertising agencies and a few niche studios. Smaller fish like me had to had to pitch with convincing design concepts and as always had to face the heat on cost estimates. Clients bargained hard or even dictated the price. In fact a client once told me ’Design comes from your mind, why should I pay for it?’ On the flip side, I was getting a fair share of the pie. Work hard to make your presence felt in the market. Good quality work will always help you succeed fired with hard work and perseverance.

Also, it was hard to get good designers to build the team. Most of them were unwilling to shift from well established agencies. So most of the time my team was a good mix of freshers and experienced designers. That gave me an opportunity to improve my training skills. I was able to set up a well stocked library in all the design agencies that I worked with until the web completely took over.

Print and web are too far away, in terms of processes and standards. What are the factors that unify both these, in your experience?

1.      Both are driven by the market requirements.

2.      They will never die. Print will adapt and survive,  web will evolve and progress.

3.      Holistic business requirements.

Formal design education is a factor that differentiates most indian designers from the designers of west. What is your opinion on this?

Its beneficial to have some level of design education. Like any medium, design too has its set of rules. Rules to typography usage, color harmony & concepts, layouts and aesthetics and visual communications. These rules do not change no matter what the platform is. They are the foundation to all design trends. Education also brings in discipline and consistency in your design style. Because you understand what you are doing.

But then there are some exceptions to the rules. Some designers just have it in them. Like they are born with it. They don’t realize that, what they practice has been laid down as rules in some design manual J. It comes naturally to them.

Indian designers generally rely heavily on softwares to design. The moment they are given a brief, they launch their favorite program to start the design process. It’s the training system to be blamed. There are too many training institutes churning out half baked candidates who are under the impression that learning photoshop qualifies them as designers. The fundamentals are missing! And many of them take to it because a friend said so.

Could you please share with us some interesting facts about your latest work?

I don’t have a specific work to pick out. But the platform is definitely interesting and challenging. Currently I work for a company called KRDS, a Facebook marketing agency based out of France. We design and develop campaigns for direct clients and advertising agencies all over Europe. As these projects come with strict deadlines and short time frames, it has given me an opportunity to push my creative skills to a new level in conceptualizing, motivating and managing a design team. The dynamics are so varied in each project that I am enjoying being on my toes. I am also blessed with a very talented design team. The synergy is excellent and the commitment is strong – all our designs have gone through without major revisions, speaks for that fact. To top it all, KRDS has given me and my team the right environment and ambience to deliver outstanding work. I can’t ask for more…

Web is ever growing, and internet is one single source of education for all the web-designers around the world. How do you stay updated with the latest trends and stories. Which are your favorite tech blogs, sites?

1.      http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/ For the nuts & bolts

2.      http://creattica.com/ For inspiration

3.      http://www.behance.net/ For inspiration

4.      http://www.helveticafilm.com/index.html To pep me up

5.      http://envato.com/ One stop shop for inspiration and training

6.      http://veerle.duoh.com/ More inspiration

7.      http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/ For more nuts & bolts

8.      http://www.thefwa.com/ All things flah

9.      http://jasonsantamaria.com/ Typographic Inspiration

and many more….

A perfect design, in your words?

Its hard to do a perfect design. Simply because its impossible to satisfy all the involved parties. Somebody is going to disagree. On a broader perspective a near perfect design is the one:

1.      That the designer is proud to showcase

2.      That hasn’t deviated from the creative brief & requirements

3.      That has scalability

4.      That can be adapted to other platforms

5.      That is compliant to standards, branding etc.

6.      That finally, makes the client happy and sign the check!

As a father of 2 kids (and that too a star kid ), what do u have to say about the so called work-life balance?

My kid is not yet a star. But I hope your words come true, thank you!

Yeah, it’s a very thin line that divides your personal and professional life. But so far I have been able to keep them separate and I am enjoying both. My rule to happiness is to never bring work home. However late it is, finish your work and then come home. Even if it means that you have to stay for a couple of days in the office. May sound like a fairy tale, but it works for me and helps me to spend quality time at work and at home. So everyone is happy, including me. Happily ever after! Hahahaha….

As a veteran designer, would you like to share some piece of thoughts/advice to the budding designers?

Need fuels change. Necessity drives progress. So from print to web and next to whatever platform, as designers we need to learn, adapt, deliver and contribute. Here are some thoughts:

1.      There is a way to doing things. Get a basic design education so that your foundation is strong.

2.      Master the tools and make them an integral part of your work.

3.      Before you start be very clear about the requirements. Clear all doubts and get all necessary inputs before you hit the drawing board.

4.      Ask for/Write a creative brief before starting a project. This is a goof reference point as you progress in your design. Will help you stay in focus.

5.      Open up your mind and think beyond just a website. Most of the time,  clients will come back asking you to adapt the design for the mobile platform or something else.

6.      Do not start designing on the computer straight-away. Always sketch your thoughts. Once you have your ideas on paper, analyze them and drill down to the best options.

7.      Do conceptual and functional wireframes before you actually design. If not for the client, atleast for yourself. This will help you focus.

8.      Understand well a client’s requirements. If possible attend a client meeting to feel the pulse of the client. Then your whole perception about account managers will change. This will bring in more synergy between the project management team and the production team.

9.      Eye candy does not work always. The design should always justify the project needs and web standards.

10.  Respect deadlines as time is money.

11.  Adapt and keep yourself updated with the latest trends, technologies, media, platform etc.. The web is a bottomless pit of resources. Take a dive…

12.  Be open to criticism and learn from your mistakes.

13.  Have self confidence. Convince yourself that your design is good. Then you will do a better job at selling it.

14.  Today, social media has highly influenced our personal and professional life. Which means, websites also hinge on them for traffic. SEO , SEM, SMO are all bullets in your design gun. So when you fire, make sure you hit the bulls eye.

15.  End of day its all about money directly or indirectly. Make your designs roll it in!