stuckinadesignersworld

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Diwa(aaahhh)li

It’s almost the end of my internship, and I’m alreadyyyy getting FOMO!! We celebrated our own mini Diwlai in the office. 

A and I were decorating the office with flowers and rangoli, and we all decided to do one rangoli outside the office. This is a video of A doing her’s. It took us a while to get it right and we were clearly struggling, but it was so much fun! 

I love the vibe of Look What Happened. Some days have been slower than others, but overall, it’s been such a great experience. 

We’ve had a lot to do the last 2 weeks - a lot of social media posts had to go out for Diwali, a lot of last minute posts (ugh, clients that call up and say we need this by the end of the day are the WORST.). Also, since this is the last 2 weeks for me, I’m doing a lot of wrapping up of projects, converting and organising files while working on LWH’s portfolio. 

Aadhunika and I decided about a week ago to start compiling all of our best projects and start creating a work portfolio. It took about 3 days to fix layouts, and we’ve been going back and forth a lot on the number of projects, and how to categorise them etc. I’m also just realising the importance of having a well-thought out and well-designed portfolio. 

Sidenote - I should probably start fixing the glitches in my website soon...

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Work hard, party harder.

This has been one of the most memorable trips ever!!

We just got back last night, and I’m already missing these guys, and the shenanigans! 

The last two days were relaxed, and I think we partied too hard (lol) the first 3 nights, so by monday, we were all pretty much just hanging out, talking, listening to music and on the hunt for some gooood eating. This was one of the most stress-free, drama-free and chill trips we’ve ever gone on as a group. I think the fact that there were just 6 of us really made a difference, rather than a big group.

Designyatra was good this year, but we all felt last year’s was better. The line-up was good, but we kept fluttering in and out throughout the day. It was also very hot outside and freeezing cold inside, which made it difficult to be in either spaces. It rained one of the days, and that made it a little cooler, but other than the weather, we had a great time! We got a chance to listen to some really good talks, and I think some of it stuck somewhere. I particularly loved some of the type stuff - there was a talk by Shiva Nellaperumal which was one of my absolute favorites and so so inspiring. 

Ahhh, but the trip’s over and such is life. Time to get back to reality and get caught up on all the work I’ve missed over these last 5-6 days. Ohooo, I’m so not looking forward to getting back into the grind. I feel like I need a mini vacay to get over this vacay. 

Is that a thing?

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Go, go, go(aaa)

Aaaaand we’re off!!

Whoever said work hard, play harder had the right idea! After some serious planning, and wayyy too much back and forth on whether we should go or not, whether the heat’s worth it, budgeting and convincing each other, we FINALLY decided to go to Goa for Designyatra. We’re also really proud of pulling this thing off on our own - we figured out an airbnb, found transportation, booked flight tickets and kdy tickets all on our own. (look who’s growingg upppppp)

This is our last year as students, and we figured we deserve a break from work and the monotony of Bombay. We’re 6 of us, and we’re so so excited for this trip. We’ve decided to stay back a day or two extra to chill after the event and to celebrate Karan’s birthday.

We’ve just reached a while back, and I’m already feeling relaxed. No deadlines, no stressing about work or planning, nothing. After a month’s worth of continuous deadlines, social media planning and some insane responsibilities, I’m really just looking forward to having a great time with my peeeeps. This is going to be a mad trip!!

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Yeh Ladki Haye Allah.

MOOOOOOD. This is what one week vacays do to you, here’s proooof!

Daily morning mood at the office. This is what I love about my mornings and my boss!! She’s in the most fun mood all the time! (Ok fine, most days)

We have this thing we’ve started - whenever the midday blues hit, we sit together and chat them away, shoot content for instagram stories (which is honestly so much fun for me because it’s a lot of organising things and color coordination, my teo favourite things in the world!!) or bust into song and dance! (Not literally, but sure, we’ve had some really groovy singalongs).

Aadhunika’s a hardcore bollywood fan, and I can’t even begin to describe how entertaining this characteristic of hers is. We have a crazy-song-of-the-day going on for a couple weeks and we start singing it when we hit a blah point and need some uplifting. It’s a small break, it’s fun and it totally works!

I think I’m going to create a playlist (another one of my fav things to do, yaayyy!! Can you tell I’m having the time of my life here?). So far, this is it -

1. You Are My Soniya - K3G

2. Koi Mil Gaya - Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

3. Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhen - Baazigar

4. Tip Tip Barsa Paani - Mohra

5. Ankhiyon Se Goli Maare - Dulhe Raja

I’m laughing just making this list! Oh, the power of music!!

[stuckinadesignersworld]

(dead)lines.

Deadlines really are going to be the death of me.

Or at least that’s what it feels like. What is it with creative people? Or is it just me? I can’t seem to sleep at a reasonable hour, most of my good ideas come at night, I’m the most productive at night, I think I have a problem.

Yesterday was super busy for everyone at office. We’ve had a set of deliverables that had to go out urgently in 2 days. It’s been absolute chaos with 3-4 of us working round the clock - just me designing, 1-2 people exporting, sending and fetching prints. We basically worked non-stop till about 6pm, took a little break and thought maybe we could wrap up in about an hour and a half or so, but time flew by and we weren’t quite as finished as we’d hoped we would be. 10pm, still here. It had now been a full 12 hours and after everyone left, it was just the boss and me. We stayed till 11pm with little to no motivation to finish up the work, got some ice-cream after locking up and headed home, only to show up to work the next day at 9am. We took a mini lunch break just now, so I have about 10 mins before I have to get back to work. Yupp, it’s going to be one hellluva day today!

Still here? Oh well, if you’ve gotten this far, might as well go through this mini rant of mine - As manic as the industry and creative work actually is, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it a little bit. This is a new experience for me, and as much as I crib and mope about the work and no ideas and long hours and having to sit and stare at a screen for what seems to be like forever, I absolutely LOVE the hustle! (I know I’ve said it already, but it’s true!) It’s a different sort of hustle, you know? It’s exciting because everyday’s a new day and we’re constantly working on new things every couple of days or so. College seems a little monotonous, assignments seem to never end and I think I’m finally starting to see what our seniors were saying about not wanting to come back to college after this internship period. I can’t imagine sitting for lectures everyday and getting back to the grind of churning out assignments and projects for months on end! I’m dreading it already, and I still have a whole bunch of weeks to go.

Not entirely sure how I feel about going back to college anymore. Are college drop-outs still considered cool and edgy?

Hahaha, jk. My parents would murder me. Okbyenow, gotta go stare at my screen again!

Guess this wasn’t supposed to be a smooth-sailing week, huh?

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Office affairs.

Walked into an empty office today. 

A has gone for a week’s trip and I’ve been left in charge of things. It’s weird, since I’m a fairly new intern and I’ve been here only about 2 odd months, but I’m taking this as a chance to prove myself. 

We have some major deadlines coming up this week, so it’s going to be pretty crazy. Final designs have to go out this week for a client’s store (all print designs - hoardings, wallpapers, flyers, cards, signs, etc.) and it’s a LOT of work. Luckily, we’ve been pretty organised and managed to stagger all the designs the last one week, so it should go smoothly.

Other than the design part, I’ve also been asked to overlook the daily shipments, keep a track of overall inventory, make sure the office is clean, opens and shuts on time, and of course, make sure no one’s slacking. It’s a lot, honestly but everyone’s pretty diligent and understanding about these things so, so far so good. 

Fingers crossed, this week goes smoothly!

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Bad days, good doggos.

I made new friends today!

It’s been a loooooooong day, and the only thing that cheered me up were these two cuties!

I can confidently say I’ve been through a rollercoaster of emotions today. I started out very excited and energetic, felt super productive for a bit, then got confused and started doubting my ideas and designs, lost perspective of all design, almost gave up and wanted to run home and take a nap (almost took a power nap at work), got frustrated and went to the boss lady and asked for her opinion, and went through all of it again with her!

Uffff! We eventually just let it go for today and wrapped up. I went over to my dad’s office just 5 mins away so we could go home together in hopes that he would wrap up soon, but that went south and I had to kill time for an hour! Luckilyyyyy, I met these two cuties - Gabbar & Basanti!! (I’m honestly not making this up, those were their names, so filmy haaaye). It was pouring outside and they were curled up on the couches outside. It was too cute, I just couldn’t resist!! I spent about 20 mins with them, and the rest reading a book and that’s about all the happy time I’ve had today!

Am I dead yet? I think so. Thank god all bad days come to an end.

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Mood(bored).

It’s honestly been a hectic two weeks and it seems like all we’ve done is come up with social media posts for our clients continuously, one after the other. In the middle of all this hustle, we’ve sort of neglected our own little brand. So A and I decided this entire week, the only thing we’ll work on (except for urgent client work) is our own social media and product design for Look What Happened.

Today was full of heavy brainstorming sessions, lots of mood boarding and looking for references, debating colors and aesthetics and a whole month’s worth of posts’ planning. We’ve just decided today to come up with some new wall art designs, and that took up a lot of my energy. My brain’s full of ideas and I’m all over the place because I have a really long to-do list for this week, but all I’m really looking forward to this week is a play I’ve booked tickets for over the weekend!

Ahh, the beauty of a job - you slog it out in the week and the weekends are pure bliss and work-free. If it hasn’t been said enough already - make the most of your time, work hard, play hard!

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Weekends are for family.

FINALLYYY, A FULL WEEKENDDDD!!!

I’m usually working Mondays to Saturdays, so this is a treat!! We’ve had a lot going on in the office this past month, and so we all just decided to take a break from design work this weekend. 

However, since Look What Happened is an e-commerce, we have to be up and running all 7 days of the week. I’ve learnt a lot about this online business, I feel. I’m also starting to learn the pros and cons of running an online business - you have to be on your feet all the time, it’s a total full-time job! A small slip can set you back by multiple orders and it’s suuuuper important to keep everything updated and running at all hours of the day, no exceptions. Phew, it’s hard work man!

Lucky for me, I’m just the design intern and they don’t have me packing, shipping and fulfilling orders (not yet, at least), so I can afford this extra day to chill. I do feel bad for the office staff though, they’re stuck there while I’m sitting with this gorgeous view!!

 I was so excited about getting a full weekend of no work and all play, we quickly gathered our family together and took a mini road trip to our farmhouse. 

It’s raining, the weather’s absolutely great and I have no plans to work. This weekend’s going to be full of board games, movies and drinks by the beach! 

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Rains, Pains & Gains

t’s just been days and days of this now - rain, traffic and endlessly working in the car getting to and from work.

It’s been raining cats and dogs, and I absolutely hate the travel, but also LOVE the hustle and the pleasant evenings and mornings and gloomy afternoons. So what if it’s a little dark and we can’t get any product shoots in with natural light (which is holding up a lot of things, but heeeeyyy! Bombay rains are to die for!!) All that’s missing is some good chai and bhajjiyas!

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Work, work, work.

Second day here, and I’ve already done more work than I would have done 3 weeks at an ad agency, I’m sure of it.

Real talk - I have a good feeling about this experience. I was thrown into work the second half of the first day itself, just like I wanted and I’m loving every bit of it! 

I took a deep breath, and with a gigantic leap of faith, and took on a little animation as my first assignment, which eventually turned into 2 not-so-little animations. I literally hate using After Effects (oops), so you can just imagine what a big problem this is, and the amount of struggling that’s going on!

Surprisingly, I didn’t lose focus one bit and sat down for a couple of hours straight. Made a list of wireframes, sketched them out one by one and then got onto making them digitally. Okay, I have to admit the process thing they keep asking us to do in college (and we usually skip over) helped and although we usually work backwards for college, it made everything so much more clear.

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Change is goood.

It’s been about a week and a half since I last checked in, and a lot has happened. 

Hmm, where do I start?

Okay okay, I’ll spare you the details and keep this short - I left the previous ad internship and am now happy and actually working, like an intern should.

Okay, let me take through the last 2 week’s major events - I’ve only quit my very exciting (as previously recorded...) advertising internship, been on a week long desperate hunt for other internships (that are definitely closer to my house!!), almost started interning at a small, REALLY shady design studio and then finally, FINALLY, settled down very happily with a young, fun and extremely chill  designer-by-accident and owner of a cutesy lifestyle brand and branding service called Look What Happened.

I am now working Mondays - Saturdays 10:30am to 7pm, but it’s close to home and I’m doing some really fun work. It’s a pretty sweet deal! Also, I made a new friend and I am so excited about working here!!

[stuckinadesignersworld]

T.G.I.F.

It’s Friday! I can’t even begin to express how happy I am the weekend is here. I guess you finally realise the importance of weekends when you’re made to drag yourself through an entire week of sitting in an office and travelling for 3 hours + a day. The simple, small joy of sleeping in and not having to think about transportation options, oh my god!

Chalo, in all seriousness - today was kind of productive. I was briefed about a Lakme lip balm creative and asked to look for layout references (which I did, and didn’t take too much time) and shortly after, was asked to try creating the creative in photoshop (*cringe moment* It is my worst enemy. I mean, I can get around it, but I don’t exactly love photoshop and working with layers) using the old vector files. I worked for about 2 hours, thought I did a pretty decent job of the layout and basically got shot down, worked for another hour and a half, modified that as per discussion, and got shot down again with no pointers on how to make it better.

This is not working out, and I’m very seriously considering a different internship. I’m giving this a couple more days.

P.S. I’m starting to think maybe the rumors about advertising being the worst is true? But I’ve only been here a week, isn’t it too early to know? So confused.

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Day 3 : Not So Different.

Hello, it’s just me again. Still stuck, still confused and still very lost.

I’m seriously considering looking at other internship offers. I had looked at some earlier last month just for the heck of it, but now I’m considering them!

Though it’s a dream I’m living (I’m being paid to come in and do literally what I want. At least for now.), I MISS BEING BUSY. I’ve lazed around, slept, almost caught up with all the tv shows I wanted to, shopped, travelled, done whatever I wanted to since we left college for summer, but that was more than a month ago and now I just miss working on assignments (- there’s something I thought I’d say). Although I was busy with TEDx in may, I got the break I needed. I was looking forward to an internship because I’d be busy and working on new things - that doesn’t seem to be happening.

Instead, here’s another list of things I’m doing to kill time.

1. Learning Spanish. (also, obsessively listening to every Spanish I’ve ever heard to see if I can understand even 10% of it) 2. Tweaking my website every now and then because I’m second guessing minor details. 3. Reading up on Sigmund Freud and his theory of personality. 4. Eating healthy and drinking lots of water! (It’s important to hydrate, I’m just learning that now. Don’t judge.) 5. Working on a couple of posts because I’m working on setting up my personal blog about everything. 6. Patiently waiting for literally any work to come my way!!

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Dazed & Confused.

Another day, another spongebob gif.

No, I do not like Spongebob. The gifs are just accurate.

This is exactly how I felt all day yesterday and the first hour of today morning. Everything’s super new and intimidating and confusing and I feel weird. I was scared and hiding in one place yesterday, as I am today, but the being scared phase has passed and so has the hiding phase. I’m still sitting at my desk, but playing it cool.

Today’s a big day apparently - some presentation/pitch to a new client. Obviously, everyone’s busy and running around like it’s the end of the world, while I sit here, plugged in and thinking about working on anything and everything I’ve ever thought of doing in the last couple months. I’m basically playing catch up with myself. This is getting boring. FAST.

It’s 2pm, and so far I’ve edited my website, started work on my personal logo and cleared up my socials (something I’ve been meaning to do for a while). So yes, I am working, but for myself. I don’t see any intern-y work coming way at least today or maybe the next few days. I’m starting to think maybe I should look at other internships?

[stuckinadesignersworld]

Lost, Not Found.

Live Update : I am here, but I am lost.

Okay, so I’ve been here a couple of hours now and I don’t exactly know how I feel? I’m the only intern here and that has me feeling really out of place, but I’m trying to convince myself that it’s just the first day jitters. I do have a habit of being pessimistic about things as they come my way, but I’m trying to change that.

Anyway, back to my current sitch - I’m currently sitting in a corner of the office. I have my own desk and little cubicle. It’s pretty cool, I have to admit. A couple of people have come and spoken to me, more like checked up on me. It was sweet of them.The office seemed pretty quiet at first, but that has changed. There’s a lot going on and I couldn’t hear myself think for a good 10 mins in between but I got used to it pretty quickly. I think I am the youngest person here and I feel like a child, I hope to god that passes because it’s kind of making me a little insecure. I haven’t spoken to many people, a few intially who introduced me to the people around and the art team.

It’s 3:16pm and this is what I’ve done so far -

1. Been part of a team briefing for O’cean flavored water.

2. Brainstormed and researched about 2 pages of content.

3. Dozed off a couple of times for a couple of minutes. (All thanks to the 2 hour nap I’ve had all night)

4. Actively avoided making eye contact with people around me right after I woke up from a 5 minute power nap in case anyone saw me. (Thankfully no one did, I’m sitting in a corner where no one can directly see me.)

5. Listened to some music.

6. Stalked the art director on social media. (She seems pretty cool, but couldn’t really find too much)

7. Written this.

Time seems to be passing by really slowly. All I can think of is going home, having a nice cup of chai and getting a good night’s sleep.

Are everyone’s first days like this?

[stuckinadesignersworld]

This is me.

Well, this is me.

Well, the big day’s finally here. It’s my first day today. I’ve to report at 10:30am, which is not so bad because I just about hate early mornings. I’m kind of nervous and excited and happy and also a little confused and sad, the kind of mix of emotions that makes your stomach kind of twist in on itself. I’m nervous because it’s a brand new place and I have no idea what that’s going to be like since I know nobody there. The last internship was easier because I was working with my best friend and her mom, it was basically a party, but this is a whole new environment and full of busy ad people. I hope this turns out the way I’m expecting it to. I’m excited because I’ve come to the realisation that even though I’m an anti-social 21 year old, I do enjoy meeting new people and hearing their stories, and so I’m looking forward to seeing some new faces (also, quite bored with seeing the same people everyday in college for the past 3 years so this will be a good switch up). I’m happy because I finally feel a little more in control of my life and like I maybe getting a hang of this whole “adulting” thing. But I’m also a little confused because I don’t think I’ve given any serious thought to whether or not I would experience the world of advertising, but now I am. I’m sad because ugh, vacay’s over. So that’s what’s going on in my head. I’m all over the place, but also a little put together. I’m also very contradictory today, as you can see. If you’re still reading this, thanks for listening to my rant and congratulations, you’ve reached the end of it. I’m going to go now and figure out where this stupid building is now. (I’m lost, as you can probably tell, but I’m not too far so hey, I almost made it!!) Also, on a completely unrelated note - I’ve started learning Spanish online. It’s only been 2 days but I’m loving it. It was a random decision, inspired by nothing other than the fact that I was listening to a Spanish song and I thought - I want to learn the words! I just hope I don’t turn into one of those language nerds.