The Life of a Graphic Designer in Chillibreeze

Melarilang Mukhim “Mel” Mukhim became part of the Chillibreeze family only recently but has come to love doing what he does here on a daily basis. Before joining Chillibreeze, Mel worked for a local cable operating company where he got very little opportunity to practice any designing. Being with Chillibreeze has helped him rediscover his passion for designing.

Shereen Ranee was working as a design consultant with one of the largest malls in Kolkata when she decided to move back to Shillong. Since then, her work with Chillibreeze has pleased customers both internal as well as external.

Andrew Fancon joined Chillibreeze in February 2015 before which he was working with a magazine company. At his earlier job, he was designing supplementary magazines and merchandise. In his current role, he has learnt a lot in terms of design skills and continues to add his design inputs to customer PowerPoint presentations.

Julbenson Hujon “Julz” has been with Chillibreeze for close to three years now and thoroughly enjoys what he does. He has been learning continually and has also been handling some very complex projects in the form of motion graphics for MasterCard, for which he was profusely appreciated by the customer.

Pynskhemlang Niangti “Pyns” has been with Chillibreeze for close to five years, before which he was working in a pre–press publishing house in Chennai for two years. When he came back to Shillong, he found a position with Chillibreeze and since then his learning has been tremendous and he loves the exposure that he gets to designing through the work that he does on a daily basis. Read Pyns’ story here.

Laurence Lyngdoh has been with Chillibreeze for the last five years. Prior to joining the company, he worked in Dubai for two years. He feels very lucky to have a good job right here in the city that he loves and that too in a company like Chillibreeze. Apart from his day to day work he also loves the idea to be able to help out and raise up his colleague in their day to day work. Read more about Laurence here.

Fanai Lalthansanga became part of the family in 2010 and has never looked back since then. He has established himself as the go–to person on a wide variety of skill sets ranging from web development to graphic designing to logos to motion graphics! Read Fanai’s story here!

Can you describe your learning since you became part of Chilibreeze?

Laurence: Before joining Chillibreeze I used to work in other companies within Shillong. But I came to know that my knowledge was very little because working internationally and working locally is a totally different thing. And Chillibreeze is all about international customers. Local customers and International customers have different levels of expectations in terms of professionalism, reliability and trust, just to name a few. I had to upgrade my skills and learn how to communicate with customers from around the world. This pushed me and helped expand my knowledge. But all this is a process in Chillibreeze and there are many here that helped and guide me

Julbenson: I learned a lot of things when I joined Chillibreeze, especially with design. I was provided the platform, training, and resources (books, online training and video from Lynda.com etc.) that have made me who I am today.

Shereen: I have learned a lot, and since I am working in a team it has also boosted my self–confidence, sense of duty and responsibility towards my work, and due to the work environment I am growing professionally.

Andrew: Since my first day in Chillibreeze I have been provided with proper training for one and a half months, which is the first part of learning before stepping into the work floor.

What are your accomplishments as a graphic designer in Chillibreeze?

Andrew: The things I have accomplished so far are: I am now able to work on more than two design software. My skills too have improved along with the speed at which I deliver. And the most important thing is that I am now much more familiar with the graphic designs required by the top companies in the world.

Julbenson: Well, with all the training, platforms and opportunity that have been provided I was able to transform my role from handling simple formatting work to complex designs and now I am also handling most of the creative motion graphics requests from our customers. In 2014, I received the "Best Innovation and Ideas" Award because of my contribution to the company.

Fanai: Being able to provide high-end design support to giant companies like Microsoft, MasterCard, InterCall, PepsiCo and many others. Being able to design the logos for Chillibreeze as a company and for our websites (Muezart and Zizira) was a privilege as well as a great honor.

How big was the company you were working with before joining Chillibreeze?

Pyns: The past company that I worked before deals in pre–press work, i.e. mostly magazine works. The company is a branch of a Dubai-based printing press and works with many big international publishing houses.

Laurence: Before joining Chillibreeze I worked in a printing press. It does a different type of work than Chillibreeze and had around 300-400 employees.

Julbenson: It is a start–up IT company with a team strength of 5 to 10 employees and providing services to domestic customers only.

Why did you decide to go for a career as a graphic designer?

Pyns: Ever since I was a kid I was always fond of drawing and anything to do with arts, comics and creativity. I would be lying if I said that my dream job was to be a graphic designer 10 years ago. However, this changed as time passes by. I have always dreamt of a career doing something I really like and never tire working day in day out for the rest of my life.

Fanai: I always dreamt of becoming a great basketball player. I followed that dream and become successful to some extent. However, life changed and it took a turn when I started to discover that I can do graphic work. I fell in love with digital art/ painting. As time goes by, I discover more of myself that I can really become better at this field. Then I found out about Chillibreeze in the year 2010.

Andrew: Art has always been my hobby since I was young. As I grew up I would take extra interest in posters, advertisements, animations etc. and thus wanted to explore more and to be part of it.

How important do you think communication in graphic designing is?

Pyns: I would say that communication plays a significant role in any graphics work. The whole purpose of any good design to work is to be able to communicate to anyone who is looking at it no matter how simple or complex the design is.

Mel: Communication in graphic designing is very important because a graphic designer has to connect with people and cause them to react. A graphic designer’s job is to help clients target specific audiences and “talk” to them directly to motivate people to make decisions and know how to strike that chord with the images you create.

Julbenson: I think communication is very important and it is the essence of graphic design. The whole point of designing is to clearly communicate the message through graphics as visual communication.

What is the primary goal of a graphic designer? Is it important that the design is only good looking, or what else should a designer consider as priorities?

Shereen: As a graphic designer my primary goal is to bring good and appealing output for viewers and to connect with them. Good looking design is important because that’s the first thing that catches the eye but that is not the only thing that is sufficient in a design. It needs a story a connection with the viewer and what could they gain from viewing it.

Andrew: Personally for me, a graphic designer should strive for one thing before he starts his work i.e. to deliver a message and this is the most important thing a designer should always be aware of.

Pyns: The primary goal of a graphic designer is to make sure that a design should be functional at all cost, in a sense that a design needs not only to look beautiful but should be able to communicate to a layman looking at it. A graphic designer needs to give importance to both typography as well as an illustration that makes up a design.

As a graphics designer in Chillibreeze, what are the various kinds of project you get to work on?

Pyns: I have been working in various kind of project viz. illustrations, infographics, banners, templates, logos, icons, layouts.

Julbenson: As a graphic designer, I have worked on various design projects like flyers, brochures, posters, PowerPoint presentation designs and animation, infographics, logos and motion graphics, just to name a few.

Laurence: Banners, brochures, flyers, posters, infographics, business cards, gif animations, web banners, ads etc.

Shereen: As a graphic designer in Chillibreeze the various kinds of project which I have worked with are comic strips, illustrations, infographics and social media banners.

Name all software products you can work with. How long have you been working with it?

Laurence: InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and MS Word. I have been working with these for 5 years.

Julbenson: Till date, I have been working with Adobe products like Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, InDesign besides CorelDraw, Camtasia Studio and PowerPoint as designer tools. I have been working with these softwares since I joined Chillibreeze in 2012.

Shereen: Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Sketchbook Pro and PowerPoint. I have been working with Photoshop and Illustrator for more than a year, Premiere Pro for less than 3 months and as for PowerPoint I have been working for 5 months.

Fanai: Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe After Effects CC, Adobe InDesign CC, Adobe Dreamweaver CC, SketchBook Pro, MS Office (PowerPoint, Word, Excel)

You have been given strict parameters for your designs. Does that stifle your creativity?

Pyns: No, that should never happen because one needs to work under all circumstances. One must keep in mind that that is how we work with customers who will always have guidelines and instructions that follow any of their design works.

Andrew: In every work we do be it carpentry, tailoring or anything, parameters are always there as long as we work for a customer. And that is a challenge for us, it is not easy but yet not impossible too.

Shereen: Honestly sometimes it stifles our creativity but there are strict parameters for designs that need to be followed and is unavoidable, so we need to adapt accordingly and make them part of our creativity as well.

Julbenson: Strict Parameters does not necessarily stifle creativity. In fact, we can use that as a guideline that would help us to achieve what we want through the designs. I often find these parameters helpful because I know what is acceptable and what is not.

Do you see Chillibreeze as an opportunity for local graphic designers from Shillong to consider as a full-time career?

Julz: Based on my own experiences I would definitely say yes. We have a good opportunity here and even if you are not the best Chillibreeze will provide the platform and learning provided you have the passion and interest. When I joined Chillibreeze I basically started from scratch all over but I am now a happy and important member of the team.

Andrew: I truly believe that Shillong has many talented and creative youth but they lack opportunities. This is what held them back from proceeding further with graphic designing as a full-time career. Chillibreeze, on the other hand, provides an equal opportunity to all the youth in Shillong.

Pyns: Yes, I totally see Chillibreeze as an opportunity for local graphic designers to consider as a full-time career. Chillibreeze works with big multinational companies like Microsoft, PepsiCo, MasterCard projects which range from advanced presentation, motion graphics, infographics, banners and many others, which one would never have dreamt of doing in other companies in Shillong. Not only will one get the chance to working on such a diverse and challenging range of projects but the promise of doing it full time is certainly very appealing.

Fanai: It will depend entirely on a person’s opinion and how they see and understand Chillibreeze. Consider this: you need to be with your family, or you need to help your family financially. You are a hard working person, you do what it takes to support your family or maybe you need the money for something important. Unlike many other companies around India, we take care of each other. Everything is done for a good reason. Either way, Chillibreeze is not for everyone. If you have grit, passion and are looking for a demanding, challenging yet rewarding career, Chillibreeze is the place to be.