Sanjay vaidyanath

Hey, guys. My name is Sanjay Vadrona. So to give you a brief background about me, I would say I initially start out my journey as a designer in 2018, right after my college. So initially, I did a stint as a founder, cofounder for a company which I cofounded with a couple of my friends. But while the, uh, doing the company as a process, I came to know that I was a bit more in love with design. So that as a passion, I took it. And I went ahead and joined the small studio out in the regular call Zoom studio where I learned, let's say, the basics of design and how to speak to clients, how to understand the client requirement. Along with that, how to present a particular idea to a client in such a way that it goes along with their brand as well as, uh, it resonates with their user base also. So these are a few things I catch along in the small scene over there at Zoom Studio. And along the lines of the next four, five years, I've worked with many brands ranging from international to national brands, from FMCG to digital focused brands, and companies that are kind of, like, social media and more focused towards the digital realm of the design industry. During all this short time of six years, what I've learned so far, I would say, is how to become a better designer by continuously learning. So that's what I would say. This is a slight background about me. Along with that, I would also like to add that I'm an avid rider, and I have a couple of pets at home. And, uh, also a small time writer, published one of one small collection of a poem book. So these are a few of, uh, things that you I would like you guys to know about me.

Okay. So working with the marketing department for a full fledged social media company in a way that always puts me at the edge of my seat, and it was always the last minute, uh, decent, uh, changes and design changes that comes to me because it had to be taken live, let's say, in another fifteen minutes or twenty minutes time. So when these kind of situations come in, what I first do is initially analyze what I can do differently from the last design or what is the change that is suggested by the design manager or, let's say, the client that was given the design initially, and then figure out how to move forward. So once that decision is taken, it's very easy for me to put into the required software. Let's It's a the creative suite, Figma, or be it any other design software. And I can just easily come up with ideas in, like, a flick of a, uh, flick of second and come up with creative solutions for that. So managing something on a time basis, I would say, my is my strong suit in a way because I've been working remote for the past four plus years. And if you don't have a proper timeline while you're working remote with zero, let's say, interference or micromanaging on you, you won't be a successful employee or a successful designer. So I would say it's kind of like an adaptability situation that you need to do. That's about it then. Yes.

Okay. So when it comes to major changes, there are three ways we can handle a client or a team member. Okay? Initially, listen to them, understand what they have to say to the design. And if the points that they are putting forth are valid and that makes sense to you, accept the changes, start doing it, come up with a solution together, push it out. If the idea that they are putting forward is not that feasible or you feel that it's not connecting with the concept that you have in mind, speak to them, let them understand your, uh, thoughts. Brainstorm with them once again. Come over the collaborative effort and come over the completely different idea or stick to your same idea and do it. The third method I would suggest is either you confirm them in a way that it is not making them uncomfortable and project your ideas to them, say the reason why you chose such a concept and why you want to go ahead with the same particular design. But most of the time, I would prefer not to go this way because it's better to give and take. It's better to understand from a client's perspective or a team member's perspective to give better design. As always, I have said that when it's better to have multiple people on a project and multiple brains on a project than just a single person's view of it because it's eventually going to end up with a customer who can be of, let's say, multiple how do you say that? Various backgrounds, various cultures. So it's better to have inputs on your work, but when it's about coming up with proper concept designs, always brainstorm with your team and then come up and do it.

First and foremost, into the brand guidelines, the first thing that you do when you're, uh, working on, uh, working on creating a marketing material. Let's say you're working for x brand, and that brand has certain colors to be followed, certain typography that has to be in a specific marketing material, certain font that has to be used, certain icon styles, flat, maybe, uh, line icons similar to that. Or even if you're working on something very complex like a brochure or even, uh, ebook that has been sent out, emailers. Always keep in mind brand comes first, then comes your creative decisions. So keep yourselves keep yourself keep the things in mind. Like, keep keep the brand mentality, brand guidelines, brand colors, brand typography, brand gradients for everything in mind, then come up with the proper design for it. These are a few things that I keep in mind. Then, obviously, there is always the golden ratio rule that I have played with you to decide. Along with that, grid rule plays your elements where people can easily read, choose your fonts wisely, choose the sizing of the fonts in such a way that on any digital or print medium, it's very easy for the user to read, use colors that are not jarring to the eyes of a user. Those are a few things that I always keep in mind.

Well, uh, I've heard someone say that human always tend to go with symmetry, And symmetry is kind of like a design language to me. So when you have to explain something to a non design person who wants to understand why is it done in such a way, it's very easy. You show them a couple of pictures. You show them reference pictures. You show them bigger brands or bigger companies that have followed the same, uh, ideas or same concepts in a way or same design style in a way. So wherever you see, it's very easy to influence people when there's a big brand doing it. For example, when you go towards minimalism, you can show them they are out of an Apple out of Apple company. So they are very minimalistic in their eyes. Right? So it's very easy for you to convince a person that look at this. A brand like Apple is doing this. So it's very easy for you to do something like this, but it's very hard for you to crack it with your brand. But when you come up with a solution for that, it's you can convince a person who doesn't have a decent background that following such things is easy. So always give them examples. Without examples, it's not easy for a person to understand who doesn't have a decent background about the concept. Always use examples in such a way that the examples that you take are from brands that are reputed, brands that have already done and executed and succeeded with that particular concept. So it'll make the user trust you more and your concepts more. So So that's what I always keep in mind.

So the basics for ensuring your typography and colors across multiple platforms is to have a proper brand guidelines in the brand book always with you. Sorry. Always carry a brand book for the brand you are working with you. Always refer to it. Always set templates in such a way that it's easy for you to readapt it for any platforms. Let's say, for example, we are working on a social media post for the big four, I would like to call it. So, like, Instagram, Facebook, x, and LinkedIn. So there are a few size variations that are required for all four of these platforms. Currently, even though they support the square size on all their post, it's better to have a size difference in all their platforms as well. So what I would like to do in this scenario is initially to create templates for these big four companies in such a way that the logo of your particular brand and color theme of your particular brand is followed across, and smaller minor details like copyright protection, uh, result text, and other brand consistencies are kept. So it's similar in a way across the platforms. Just create templates in such a way that it follows the brand guidelines and always keep in mind, don't play too much around with the typography. Like, don't play too much with different fonts to be used. Always stick to stick to consistent amount of fonts. Minimum two, maximum three. That's it. Don't use more fonts than three fonts in a particular post or any design that you do because it becomes uneasy for the consumer to get it. So I always say keep minimum two fonts, maximum three fonts, and that's how I start by this process.

Okay. I would say I'm more of a digital format person. Even though I have experience in print, I would prefer working on digital format. But current scenario, even papers have come up with creative approaches of bringing to life print and digital together. So to have a better consistency across the board, when you're printing sorry. When you're working on a print platform, it's better to choose fonts that are light to the eyes, easy to read, colors which are light to the eyes. So it should be very striking. For example, you take a paper. You see the headlines. It's very easy for you to read. Then you go into the content of it. So when you're looking at an ad, you don't have time to read the content completion. So put it in such a way, in a glance, the user is attracted to the particular ad. And in a glance, the user gets what is the headline of the ad and major points of the ad. Separate it in that way. Then for digital platforms, it's very easy for us to come up with solutions to catch the users. Uh, Uh, what do you say? Interest. But in the short form era, let's say you get minimum of five to eight seconds on the digital platform. So within that eight seconds, you should be able to capture the interest of the user. In print, I would say it might be even shorter, but when you're looking at a specific ad, if you see something like the the discount of 6,000 rupees on a particular product, they immediately go for that. So come up with catching phrases along with the copy team and come up with a design that strikes that interest in the ad that you're putting out. So that's my approach towards designing for both print and digital formats.