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

A technology group in a large IT (Information Technology) firm recently crossed 50 million dollars in business. This group works in Telecom Domain. To mark the occasion, they are planning a celebration and needs a logo to be printed on gift articles and posters. The brief was that the logo should capture the essence of the celebration to mark this milestone. This logo design was an open contest and I was fortunate enough to send two designs to them.

There should be a ‘50,’ there should be a ‘Million’ and there should be a ‘$.’ This was the thought in my mind. After a dozen attempts, I came up with a line drawing.

Happy with this design, I opened Photoshop and started with ‘Pen Tool’ and ‘Paths’ for the design of ‘5.’ After an hour-long attempt to draw a curved path and ‘Stroke’ it, I realized that this is not my path! My attention turned towards the logo of the company. Wow! There is an ‘S’ and an ‘O.’ It occurred to me that this ‘SO’ can be passed off as a ‘50.’ See the result:

Following are the interpretations:

1. ‘S’ disguised as ‘5’
2. ‘O’ disguised as ‘zero’ and is shaped like the mast of a boat.
3. Two stylized Musical ‘Quarter Notes’ are added to the ‘S’ to resemble ‘$.’ The musical notes are justified because the technology group has its business in Telecom Domain. Since the company is a reputed firm from India, the colors match that of India’s National Flag. Also, the musical notes can also be imagined as oars of the boat.
4. The ‘Million’ is represented by an ‘M’ and is given the representation of ripple in water.

Though I designed one more logo, the logo featured here is the closest to my heart. While writing this, it occurs to me that the aerodynamic design of ‘50’ in the initial line drawing was better.

The latest news is that my logo is shortlisted from many other submissions. But after one or two rounds of voting, it failed to win a majority.

The best man always wins!

Software: Adobe Photoshop CS2
Design date: 03-June-2008