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If It Were You, We’d Never Leave

Andrew Bayer just dropped a new album, and boy, what an album it is!

The man is clearly a compositional genius, which comes as little surprise given he is a Berklee College of Music alumnus. It is a dreamy, atmospheric experience — reminiscent of a warm summer day.

I listen to a lot of electronica from all the major labels, but this is the most refreshing album I have heard in a long while. There are no dance grooves and no fillers — just 16 brilliant tracks that demand repeated listens. Anjunabeats are privileged to have Bayer on the roster.

Twenty Five

I turn 25 today, so here are twenty five things I’ve learnt thus far, in no particular order.

  1. You, and every other person at the office is replaceable. Don’t sweat it. Relationships with family and community matter more.
  2. Windows Phone still surprises me, even after 8 months.
  3. Trials and difficulties come our way so that we can rely on His strength, not our own.
  4. You’ll always be your parents’ son. No matter how old you grow.
  5. Nothing irritates me more than people on Facebook who can argue for days as to why their football club is better.
  6. Ignoring Tumblr all these years was a big mistake.
  7. Startups are over-rated.
  8. “No matter how cool you think your interface is, the lesser of it the better.” – Vitor Lourenco, Twitter’s first designer
  9. The Lumia line has hugely boosted Nokia’s chances of a comeback.
  10. Marriage is the most fantastic journey you’ll ever take in life: treat it as such. I’m glad I did.
  11. If I wasn’t a designer, in another life I’d probably be an astrophysicist.
  12. Lenovo is the only laptop company with steady profits as of 2012.
  13. Standards; whether religious, professional, moral or social, must be uncompromisingly upheld. Else don’t call them standards.
  14. Facebook got it totally wrong with Home / First.
  15. Words make reality. If you keep saying things and believe they will happen, they happen.
  16. My life changed the day I understood ​“design is how it works”.
  17. “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” – CS Lewis
  18. Though there are a few freelancers and agencies doing great work; India needs far, far more designers of all kinds: UX, IxD, product, typeface, automobile, etc. And by designers I don’t mean kids sitting in their mom’s basement using pirated copies of Photoshop.
  19. Javascript still scares the hell out of me.
  20. Our minds are too limited to even comprehend God in His entirety. To truly believe, pray for faith.
  21. Have kids when you’re young. It gets a lot harder as you grow older.
  22. Meteorologists have the coolest jobs. Which other career allows you to be wrong half the time?
  23. Paperback reading beats iPad reading any day.
  24. Best professional advice of the year: to learn to design, learn to see.
  25. If I could have one accent in the world other than my own, it would be Irish.

Version 2 of my blog Hidden Logic went live today.

Still some work to do though. Fingers crossed.

Korg PA50 — best keyboard I’ve played on so far.

Be strong and courageous, for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. Joshua 1:6 (NRSVCE)

Taking a leap of faith into a new beginning. Details to follow shortly.

Adeus, Dotahead

After two very fruitful years, the time has come for me to leave Dotahead and Synapse. Today was my last working day here.

I have already written about the great culture at Synapse, and I can highly recommend it as a good opportunity for designers, copywriters and project managers. Some of the brightest people I know have spent the best part of their careers at Monte Carlo.

A special thank-you to Gourav Jaswal, for taking a chance on me. Many thanks to my mentors, Dileepan Ramanan and Udaya Lakshmi for teaching me all I know about design and business. Hat-tips also to Gurpreet Singh and Piyush Goel for their inputs and guidance during my first year.

To all my other colleagues — thank you for making the most memorable years of my career. I will miss each and every one of you. Please accept my best wishes for the coming year.

To success, and the road ahead!

One year at Dotahead

Actually, it’s been more than a year — thirteen-and-a-half months — that I joined Dotahead as an interaction designer. Just a few notes about why I love this place and see myself working here for many years to come.

A sea of talented people

They say the best thing you can do for your career is surround yourself with people smarter than you. And when I look around where I sit, I see some really smart people. People who are serious about making a difference to our clients’ businesses. People who eat, breathe and live digital — sharp thinkers, project managers, designers and technologists.

As a designer, this means I will always have unbiased critical feedback on my work. Does it communicate what it should? Is it aligned correctly with the client’s brand? Are the layout, colors and typography up to snuff? Will it make the desired business impact?

If not, it needs to be changed, or sometimes even reworked entirely. Sure my ego takes a beating, but the final product is worth all of it.

Diverse work, great clients, unique culture

You’d better be bringin’ it when you turn up for work every morning, because we’re dead serious about the work we do. Over the last year, I’ve had the opportunity to work on various projects for clients like Microsoft India, IDG, the Landmark Group, Tata Communications, Pragmatix, McKinsey & Company… I’m totally name-dropping here.

Desktop sites, mobile sites, Android apps, Windows Phone apps – I’ve got great exposure on many diverse platforms that has helped me grow immensely as a designer. The Synapse culture is hard to explain in a few lines; but it’s great to work at a place that values discipline, honesty, innovation and responsibility; in an environment that rewards hard work immensely, and addresses shortcomings gently.

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo is the plot that houses DotAhead and the Synapse group of companies. Located on top of the Dona Paula plateau in Goa, our office space is beautiful. Have a look for yourself.

Don’t feel like working at your desk? Try the ​“huts” outside! Or our partly-open conference hall. Nothing beats the peace and quiet at Monte Carlo. There’s also a volleyball court, a ping-pong table and plenty of greenery: what more could you ask for?

Just awesome

This past year was awesome, and I can hardly wait to see what the coming year has in store. Just a quick shout-out to all my colleagues at DotAhead and Synapse—you guys are awesome!

Starting off

It’s never too late to start a personal blog. Life is full of stories and experiences, and here I will attempt to document these.

Let’s pretend I’m not a designer. Just a human being.

A storyteller, perhaps.