I’ve lost the count of the number of people who have asked me this question throughout my career, from time to time…and I always tell them “oh! It’s a long story, wait for the movie!”
The reason being that, once you work with me, you’ll realize that I’m more of a technical person than a creative one! My basic instincts naturally gravitate towards the technical side of a project rather than the creative. I’m so much into details and the technicality of things, I can often easily ignore or sacrifice the creative in them…
Spaces, margins, alignments, sizes, consistency… I can get lost for hours in trying to make them perfect! And I will notice these things more than I’m supposed to, my eyes will naturally draw to a paragraph moved away from the set margin before looking at the whole creative outlook of a page…
And that’s because I’m naturally a technical person. My background is in technical. I studied mathematics and science. I worked in IT Support. I wasn’t a born designer, I used to fix computers!
I wanted to be an astronaut when I was 9 – the idea of floating freely in space fascinated me. By the time I was 13 that idea seemed next to impossible. So, I always imagined ending up being in a dark room trying to solve mathematical problems, looking for answers to questions nobody asks! Or stuck in a lab, researching science projects; these were my favourite subjects!
But then I was introduced to the magical world of computers back when Windows 95 got released. And I was so taken by the whole charm and wonder of this world, that I never looked at anything else! I was mesmerized by the way computers functioned!
I mean I was excellent at mathematics, but I could never multiply 10973498 by 39881304 in 2 seconds! And have you ever looked closely at a motherboard? It’s a piece of magical art in itself! You draw some lines, run some circuits, write some codes, connect some wires and voilà! The little piece of metal starts performing functions faster than your brain can process! Pure magic!
And then came the internet and brought Google in my life. I was always a sucker for knowledge, I wanted to know everything about everything! I used to go through tons of encyclopaedia DVDs just reading about everything! And then the internet and Google brought all that knowledge of the world and placed it right under my fingertips! Trust me, I was like a kid in Disneyland!
It became clearer than a freshly washed glass that no matter what career I chose, I had to spend it surrounded by computers. I was sure I’ll end up working in a server room running wires and fixing hardware firewalls one day!
In my last job, I got hired as an IT support & junior web designer – yes! I did learn how to code in HTML, CSS, and used “Macromedia” Dreamweaver & Flash to design websites once upon a time in life…
I did that for a few years…until there was this little French girl who decided to leave the greens of France to come right into the middle of this desert! I mean why would you ever leave a place like France!!! #stillrollingmyeyesafteralltheseyears
She joined the agency as a Junior Project Manager. Fast-forward into 6 months…she comes to my desk on a random fine evening and I looked at her, and it was like she’s going to burst into tears any second now! Naturally, I asked, “Are you okay?” She said, “I have this little flyer I need someone to design for me, but everyone is so busy with the big & important clients & projects, no one has any time for me. And I’m really feeling bad because I’ve been stalling my client for 3 days now!”
She actually seemed really reallyyyyyyyy upset about that little 4-pages A5 flyer!
So, I replied, “Well, I can do it for you, but you gotta tell me what you need…because I can use the tools, but I cannot do the “designing” part of it. I’m good at designing websites only!”
She agreed promptly, sat beside and we designed that little flyer together! She was fairly new to the world of creative designing, I never even tried to go there myself…we were just like 2 kids playing with fonts, colours & shapes. In 3 hours, she had her flyer design ready. It actually came out better than what she expected, better than what I expected!
And from there, a little seed got planted! Gradually it became a norm – if she’d have something, and she wouldn’t find anyone to do it for her, she’d come to me, we’d sit together, discuss ideas, argue, try things, figure out stuff and cook something in the end…
And as the earth kept moving on its axis, we became stronger & better at it! An army of two! In six years, she’d go on to become the senior account director and I’d end up being the senior art director for the agency! From a little 4-pages flyer to there…that little seed of ours turned into a humongous tree!
But by no means it was all rainbows & unicorns…we drove each other mental on some days…
She’d nit-pick on the smallest of things like pins & needles in my bum…while I’d be so obsessed & stressed about fixing the god-damned margins!!!
She had this brilliant creative mind, and she’d want to try different ideas, while I’d be so stuck within CMYK values and calculations and applications of things!
But in the midst of all this, she would learn all the technical things I was doing and I’d learn all the creative things she was…
In the beginning, I used to be stubborn, grumpy and got annoyed easily whenever she criticized my work or pushed me into a direction, I didn’t want to take.
But eventually, with time, I’d come to realize that her criticism and feedback actually shaped me into becoming a better creative designer. She pushed my boundaries, she forced me to look outside the cubicles of my technical brain. She inspired me, challenged me, amused me, annoyed the hell outta me – she’d keep knocking & dancing on my head like a little woodpecker until I’d give in and do my best…she wouldn’t let me settle down on anything less than extraordinary!
And that…that’s how I’d become the creative designer that I’m today! That’s how a person who just wanted to get buried in a server room, now sees the different Pantone colours in the changing colours of the sky during the sunset or when you add milk to your tea! I actually draw my logo ideas on a piece of paper with a pencil now!!! If you’d have told me a decade ago that one day, I’ll be doing this, I’d have laughed until my teeth fell off! I hated papers & pencils and especially drawing stuff!!!
I work with some really cool clients…and they initially feel nervous about giving their feedback and criticism thinking that it would upset me. But they get surprised when I welcome it and sometimes even thank them for providing “valuable insight”. And when they share their surprise with me, I always reply “Yeah, I was well-trained by someone!”
So yeah, that’s my story of becoming a creative designer 🙂
I’ve come a long way from designing a little flyer with her that evening… So much time has gone by…
We don’t work with each other anymore, because…oh well “c’est la vie!”
We grew apart as we grew older, our priorities shifted in the opposite directions, we chose our own different paths…
But I still carry her and whatever she taught me, with me all the time! She is still there somewhere in everything I design or every pixel that I draw…sitting there in some corner of my head, nit-picking the hell outta my designs! 
I can’t tell you whether she woke the creative in me or she installed it!
I only know that I’m just a designer, she is the creative in me!