What Sets This Visual Designer Apart From the Rest?
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What sets apart successful designers from the rest? In our hunt for this answer we came knocking at the doors of Simoul Alva, an up and coming yet very successful Visual Designer and Art Director. Simoul gives us a peek into the behind the scenes of her success.
Crystal clear clarity is a critical ingredient while striving to achieve our big dreams. An exemplar of pristine clarity is the up and coming Visual Designer, Simoul Alva.
Even before completing her Undergrad degree from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Simoul had already bagged projects and freelance work from renowned organisations. Her journey has been a mix of reaching out for things and sometimes things reaching out to her. She believes it is important early on in one's career to keep trying different things. Owing to her openness, Simoul has always learned something from each project like a new visual design skill, research, strategy, time management, the history of the craft, etc.
Simoul has won numerous awards to date, the first being the Ratan Tata Scholarship for standing first in the entire foundation program. The Patrick Kelly Scholarship by the One Club for Creativity and The Art Director's Club is special because she was the first person from outside the United States and the first Indian to win these awards. She was also delighted to win a Kyoorius Young Blood In-Book award.
Speaking of her experience in international competitions, Simoul explains that she simply applies to relevant competitions if she thinks she has a chance to win. Often in competitions, the work is judged without the presence of participants to explain. This taught Simoul to ensure that presentation and communication are clear. The competition experience also taught her to take things positively when she did not make the cut. It also allows for great exposure to creatives from different parts of the world.
Working with different people and under different mentors certainly presents opportunities for great learning. One such important lesson for Simoul is to keep doing what she is interested in, and investing in her ability even if she doesn't get to use all of her skills every day. Time and investment will come in hand one day, and things will soon fall in place. She also believes in the power of reaching out. At first, she was shy of emailing people she wanted to work with or learn from, but later learned that one response or feedback at the right time can change your life. Working with different people also taught her the importance of communicating effectively and not being scared of asking questions.
When asked about current work, Simoul elaborated that she recently wrapped up an exciting project for Adobe with the Adobe Dimension team based out of San Francisco. She has been currently working in 3D and using it for storytelling and editorial illustration. She is now looking to explore strategy and visual system design in future.
Simoul has mixed feelings for the current situation of the Pandemic. It is a painful, difficult and uncertain time, for everyone and her too. But she is grateful that she could stay connected with the people that she love.
Published in Issue 34
Business, studios, agencies, freelancer all have different perspectives to handle the pandemic and hurdle it brings. While some find pandemic an obstacle which will soon fade away and on the other hand, few saw opportunities in the same. Many creatives used the past few months to reflect on their styles and horn their art. Many utilized it for collaboration opportunities with national and international creatives. This issue is a must-read if you are looking for insights, inspirations and ways to bounce back in this unlocking phase.
