So today morning, I spent some hours digging through my back-up data in CDs and got some old stuff. For those who are interested, here is my story.

“What is a computer?”
I am one of those very few ‘youngsters’ out there who have actually used Windows 3.1 OS in 1996. Windows 95 had appeared by that time, but my village in India was far, far away from the latest technology (Now it is better!). For a long time, computer for me was the CRT Monitor. I never really observed the box with a power-ON switch near that monitor. Yes, yes, now I know how a Mac looks like.

Going digital
I bought a ‘Dummies’ book and started learning Adobe Photoshop 5.5 in August, 2000. Since it was a limited day trial version without the ‘save’ command, I couldn’t save the early designs I did. I vaguely remember making a composition of a straw in a glass of yellow fruit juice. At that time, I was not a technologically advanced guy to think about ‘Print screen’ and ‘MS Paint.’ Alas!

This is the oldest Photoshop work I could get from the archives. The time stamp of the file says 28-Nov-2000. I created this on my friend’s PC while I was staying with him in Bangalore, in search of a job. You can see the influence of Hollywood in my earlier works.
I followed it up the next day with the ‘Perfect storm’ scene, a space shuttle and a satellite and some logo renderings of DOLBY Digital and DTS.

Animation
I started to learn Macromedia Flash 4.0 in August, 2000. I made a DTS trailer and fortunately I have the original file with me. It is fun to see it now. It even had a typo – ‘Aiso featuring…’ instead of ‘Also featuring…’ — just after the appearance of DOLBY logo! And, there is no audio in this file.

Then I made a ‘Jurassic Park-Lost World-Godzilla’ inspired short animation. After a couple of years, I lost interest in animations completely.

Website
As per records, on 03-Sep-2001, I made an htm file to use in a server for my colleague’s project. I don’t have that file with me, but I remember placing the LINUX logo in it. The project was called ‘Peripheral Sharing Device (PSD),’ I cannot remember what it was. I may have used Microsoft FrontPage to design the page.
The first website I made is for my own use and it was hosted in a FreeServers domain. The date of upload is Saturday, 22-Sep-2001. This domain is still active and what you see there now is an updated version I did in 2005. Click here to see the original version. If possible, view in Internet Explorer to see the gliding effect of the background. I designed it in Macromedia DreamWeaver.

I also had a mirror of this website in the now defunct Geocities account.

Back to 2009
That was a nostalgic journey. I am surprised to see how much design I was doing back then. I took a mental note to design more diverse stuff from now onwards.
So, what is your story? What was your first design? The below space for comments is all yours…

The Premise
In 2007, the technology company, where I worked, was thinking about conducting a walk-in interview to attract new talent to fill in some positions. Handouts were to be printed and a newspaper advertisement must be given. I was approached to do the design. A couple of samples were given to me. I started my work.

One is not enough
I always follow the practice of giving more than one option for the clients. This means more hard work, but in the end, I have more chances of winning an account. The safest bet is to do a conventional one, a rebellious one and a creative one.

Conventional ‘Dream’ Ad
If you open any newspapers and look at the recruitment ads, most of them fall under the ‘text only’ ads category. A couple of them may feature typical happy faced employees in formal attire, looking at you. Or you can see a vast office space, cubicles with all the latest technology devices or a team meeting proceeding at the board room.

The words that came to my mind were ‘dreaming,’ and ‘high flying.’ Then I remembered: I had a vast collection of photographs that I took during my second visit to the wonderful country of South Korea. After digging up my hard disk, I found a couple of photos. All of them are taken on 29-Apr-2007 at Joyeong-dong, near to Yeungnam University, South Korea.

Now, the story takes a new path…
Click on the photos for a larger view.
These are mounts that served as tombs of old ruling classes in Korea. After the excavations in 1987, this place is kept as a recreational area and many people visit there in the evenings.

I spotted three friends relaxing on top of a mount.

When I went near to them, one of them looked at my OLYMPUS camera. English will not help you to communicate in South Korea as only a few people understand the language. I lifted my camera and the guy immediately understood my intention. His friends were lying down and this man sat there with a ‘natural pose’ gazing to a distance. I clicked his photo from a low angle and I vaguely remember seeing a jet trail on the top left of the view finder.

Later, I also clicked the jet trail in the blue sky. Yes, there is a television antenna too.

For my ‘dream’ ad, I combined these two photos and wrote the mast head “Dreaming a high-flying career in technology?’

This is the final product.

‘Bud’ – The Rebel
Can a technology company flaunt a playful look? Of course, yes. The best example is Apple Inc. ‘Budding talents’ was the keyword in my mind and I wanted to give a colorful look to the whole ad. This will help to grab attention of the reader when he browses the newspaper page full of ‘text only’ ads.

I took some photos of the Chinese toy — a solar powered ‘Flip-Flap’ bud. The shape of this toy was mapped in Photoshop and was used to create colored silhouettes that overlapped in the background. ‘Overlay’ and ‘Hard Light’ layer effects were used to create the interesting interference effects.

‘ID Card’ – You are the hero!
To cajole the reader, this advertisement tried to make him the central character. This ad asks for your photo to be put in the ID card of the company. It is very difficult to resist such an invitation.

What you see is the photograph of my yellow striped shirt, my Parker ball pen and my ID card. I took this photo by spreading the shirt on a table with all the accessories as shown.

Were they got published?
None of these works were published in the newspaper as the company headquarters supplied an ad specifically for the walk-in interview. There were talks on printing my work as handouts to be distributed at the venue of the interview. The ‘ID Card’ ad was later modified with this line ‘We have a space for your friend’s photo’ so that it could be used as an e-mailer inviting referrals from employees. If my memory serves me right, nothing happened to these ads.

But I am very proud of creating them. The experience was nice and I got a lot of feedback from my friends that helped me in my future assignments.

Sherlock Holmes – The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
“Well,” said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return once more to London, “it has been a pretty business for me! I have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what have I gained?”
“Experience,” said Holmes, laughing. “Indirectly it may be of value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your existence.”

Software: Photoshop
Design Date: 17-July-2007

I want to win an Oscar some day. As on today, the Academy does not give away Oscars in Electronics Engineering. So, after serious and lazy thoughts, I have decided to become a designer. What designer, even I don’t know, only time can tell.

• I need a portfolio with a lot of shameless self promotional stuff.
• I need to learn Auto CAD, 3dsMax and SolidWorks.
• I need to improve my English.
• I need to buy a Notebook PC.
• I need to decide where to study the ‘Master in Design’ Course.

Everything is possible. But as I am suffering from a pathetic disease of laziness…

Anything below 200 is easy to read. The ‘word counter’ shows 183 words so far excluding the title.

That’s all from my end. Let us meet again sometime in this week.

204!