The Art of Digital Graphic Design – S. L. Aditya

This episode is dedicated to my longest standing friend, Danny.

We grew up together and remained close friends through some very difficult and trying times, but also many years of joyful happy times, which I always will cherish.

And one of those was my first kiss and indeed it was Danny.

We didn't wanna enter high school, not knowing what a kiss would be like.

So we tried it out in eighth grade.

We always laughed about that incident.

Well, over this last weekend, he passed away ever so suddenly.

And our hearts are broken.

Danny always asked me when we saw each other.

"Hey Cat, did you miss me?"

yes, Danny.

I miss you always.

Rest in peace.

Your positive, positive, positive imprint, imprint, imprint stories are everywhere people and their positive action inspire positive achievements.

Your PI could mean the world to you.

Get ready for your positive imprint.

Hello, this is Catherine host of your positive imprint.

The variety show featuring people all over the world whose positive actions are inspiring positive achievements, exceptional people rise to the challenge.

Music by the talented Chris Nole and congratulations to Chris.

He has a new book available on Amazon, and it is a best seller.

The title is "collect your music, royalties a do it yourself.

Guide for the self administering songwriter and recording artist."

Hey, check it out.

And as always a huge thank you to Chris, for permission to use some of his music on this podcast, including

elevated intentions in which he composed for your positive imprint.

Check out Chris and his music at, ChrisNole.com, C H R I S N O L E.

Follow me on Facebook and Instagram, your positive imprint connect with me on LinkedIn.

Sign up for email updates from my.

Yourpositiveimprint.com.

And thanks for listening on apple podcast, Google podcast, Spotify, Amazon music, or whoa, your favorite podcast platform.

Thank you.

Your positive imprint.

What's your PI?

S.L.

Aditya is a 19 year old college student from Southern India.

He listens to podcasts and guess what?

He came upon your positive imprint during the 'design, your t-shirt' for Y P I international contest.

He entered his simple and very unique design.

It was YOU and thank you so much who voted and I appreciate you

and all of my listeners who are participating in the contest, Aditya's design was the winning one.

and he's going to share his work here on the show.

Well, I've had the opportunity to chat with him.

And at 19, he has so many positive imprints to share, but I've also asked him to share about his culture and what brought him into designing.

Aditya,

I am so happy that you entered the contest and I'm thrilled to feature you on today's show.

I'm so honored to be here today to speak on your podcast.

I've been a big fan now.

thank you so much for having

me.

Oh my goodness.

I am thrilled to have met you.

You are just a amazing wonderfully kind person with a talent and this vision for your positive imprint, which I appreciate.

Yes.

I kind of wanna just start out the conversation with first of all, who you are.

Absolutely.

So to start by, I would like to describe myself as very experimented.

I'm a guy who loves to, uh, you know, try out new waters.

I, it is just been like that since I was a very little kid.

I love trying out new things, let it be fashion, let it be food, let it be art.

And, uh, when I came in my 10th standard, uh, I'm not sure what you call it in, uh, America, but we have 9, 10, 11, 12.

So during 10th, after 10th, we are supposed to choose a stream in our school, high school, senior high school, basically.

And in that we have just three options across India, which is 1.

commerce.

2.

Arts and 3.

Science.

So, uh, this, this society mindset that all the smart ones, all the people who did well in 10th grade, they take up a science stream and all the kids who are

So that's just a mindset.

I don't know who came up with it, but apparently is there.

So, uh, when I heard about arts by arts, we don't mean fine arts by arts we mean, we have, subjects like commerce, psychology.

We have English, of course we have, a history, of course.

So when we read about such subjects, we become very, uh, culturally aware and I feel that is very important.

So when I actually, I have my twin as well.

She's also my, my age and she's doing law actually.

And she was very interested in arts, of course, but when me and her, we took up humanities we are very bright kids, but when we took up arts, a lot of people asked us 'your scores are so great.

Why are you taking arts?' So there that mindset, I really hate it.

People.

They just think that, you know, the moment you, you say that I'm, I'm in, I'm studying arts they immediately assume that you are not academically doing well.

' We had this board in our classroom, , and under everyone's picture, we would write their dream.

What do you wanna become?

I used to go to the science kids, classroom, and everyone had the same dream..

Engineer or maybe pilot, maybe just one or two would be pilot, but most of them would be engineers.

In commerce.

I found accountancy and things like that, but I could not find one creative field that were, uh, children who are, genuinely creative, but they were forced into taking up science or commerce.

But when you come to humanities class under all photos, everyone's, dream would be absolutely unique.

Fashion designer, graphic designer, lawyer, , a paleontologist, , and such variety would be there.

So I was very happy that I took humanities.

So after that I, uh, gave my entrance exam for design.

So in India, there's this, uh, university called NID- national Institute of design, which is considered to be the best design school in India.

And getting in, NID is super difficult, very competitive and around 20,000 kids, , give that exam and only 30 or 40 students out of the 20,000 get into NID.

So fortunately, uh, I gave it last year and I gave it this year and both times I passed.

Congratulations.

thank you so much.

Thank you.

So, and, and while giving the entrance exam for design, I also gave the entrance exam for law.

So the name of the entrance exam for law is CLAT so my sister was giving CLAT and I thought, why not?

I allow give that also.

And my parents and my elder brother, my entire family has this law background.

So they encouraged me to also do law.

So I gave the entrance exam and around 80,000 students gave that exam, and my rank was around 10,000.

So I clearly got to know where I stand in law exam.

I stand in the ranks of 10,000 and in design, I'm able to stand in the top 1% of the country.

So I instantly knew that design is my passion design is where I'll excel.

So, yeah, that's how I decided.

And my parents were over the moon when they got to know that, uh, I had passed the exam and they supported this dream of mine.

For some reason or another, uh, you know, assumption that artists, they don't, get paid well, but I would like everyone to just look around their room.

Every single thing that is around us, has been designed by someone, it can be a remote and on the remote, there's some button, even that button, the icon, every single thing is designed.

So there can never be never be, less demand for designers.

It's, it's a very constant increase, right?

So we, every day there are new products, new companies, everybody needs a designer.

I'm really, grateful to be in this field.

To study design and, , unfortunately designers in India, the (inaudible) are made to feel, , lesser than others, maybe like engineers, , lawyers and, , science students.

But I feel that's absolutely wrong.

Everybody has their passion and they have the right to follow it.

And I don't care what the society thinks and no one should, everybody should, , take control of their own life and not stop worrying about what others would think of them.

And that's how I would say that I have , been able to be happy with myself.

Of course I was, , bullied, uh, like for, maybe for my skin color, for my body weight.

But after realizing that who am I, I was able to tell myself that these are your strengths.

These are your cons.

You can, you have to work on cons,, but when I got to know who I am, I was able to, , get courage to just do whatever I want and I've never been happier.

And I wish that for everyone to take control of their life and to realize who they are.

and I do feel very strongly about this.

And, uh, now I have been in design.

I've been doing a one year of, , design now in college.

This is the life that, , eight year old Aditya would have been dreaming of.

This is everything I have ever wanted.

So I'm really happy.

So usually, I, I know a lot of kids, , from other streams, banking college, , going out with their friends, probably just not going to classes, but

I'm gonna have new challenges.

I love that.

And I look forward to going to college every day.

And, , in between we would also have colleges on Saturday, Sunday, seven days, seven days a week around maybe seven to eight hours.

And I never complained because I really loved it.

And I wish that for everyone, you know, to know what you want.

And I think that's the biggest strength.

Yeah.

Wow.

Aditya, you have such fabulous wisdom in all of that is so inspiring.

Thank you so much for anybody who's listening around the world.

Yeah.

That is such great advice.

And it's wonderful that you had the courage and the strength to continue forward instead of listening to the societal norms.

Absolutely.

Then you mentioned something that is incredible.

You said look around the room, every single thing that you have in your room is designed by somebody.

And that is such a true statement.

And I wanna ask you, one of the exports for India is clothing and fabric.

So yes, we are the number one cotton, uh, exporters.

So why is it still set aside as opposed to your commerce and your science?

I just feel it's because of this, uh, money, everybody's really money minded.

So nobody wants to work for, you know, no money.

And I, at that's fair, I'm not saying that's wrong, but I feel that money doesn't matter every single time.

So sometimes if there's opportunities where you might get paid less, that does not mean you don't, , pursue that challenge.

And since, , scientists, lawyers, engineers, everyone gets a good, great salary here.

So everyone's parents, they want their child to do the best.

They want their child to earn the most.

So of course they like to, , force them into going to that path.

And they think that these adults, 16 year olds, 18 year olds, they are not capable of taking that decision, which I feel, which is very wrong.

It's it should be the child's decision to do whatever he wants.

So that's the issue.

And coming to your point, fashion, we see it as a business.

We don't see it as fashion design.

We see it as printing and printing textiles and exporting it.

So that's the unfortunate part.

I mean, I don't see a lot of designers who, you know, set up a studio, take their time to experiment with designs.

And that's why the, there are very little amount of fashion designers in India who are doing very well.

That's, that's very unfortunate.

And most of them who, who are taking up fashion design are forced into, , taking up jobs that pay well.

So things like, , bridal wear, so that results in, , very repetitive patterns.

Everybody's making the same thing in the market.

So there's no real diversity in design.

That's what I feel.

Very little people are taking up the challenge to create something new and that, and when you create something new at first, people don't, they don't appreciate it.

Anything new people they, uh, instantly say no to, it takes time for it to, you know, uh, come to as come as a trend for a probably.

While India's urbanizing in the cities, there are new trends that are coming from the west, for example, , I've seen, , men wearing necklaces, right.

And that's just that, , very thin necklace that they wear in America, just, , men and that's not seen as something feminine maybe in the west, but when you wear

When we go east towards maybe Korea or Japan, now there's a trend that men, they wear earring, a small earring on their, one of their earlobes, right?

Not both, but one of them.

And now that started coming a little bit in India, , now Kpop, K dramas are taking over the world.

So again, that is also considered very feminine.

And I, I personally feel that accessories, clothing, they don't have a gender.

Anybody can look good at them and, , anybody can just wear them and feel themselves.

And that takes a lot of courage.

That's what I feel..

You just took all of the fashion and put it into one sentence and you said accessories don't have a gender.

. And that is so true.

And, more acceptance of some trends coming into India,

yes, but it's very slowly.

Okay.

I would say it's very slowly happening.

But I do feel that my generation has a very high acceptance rate.

Like I see my generation talking about issues.

Taking time to recognize all the problems that have been existing for Centuries.

They're ready to talk about maybe women being suppressed, maybe women being told to sit in the kitchen, you know, take care of her family and not work.

And I really feel that it's actually changing.

And I could actually notice that around me, it's affecting a person, individual person.

And I think that's just great.

That is just great.

Yeah, that's something absolutely to work on.

And I don't know, , how being active is in India, but before we get to that, I wanna ask you about design.

As you're moving forward in your degree, was there anything in your lifetime that happened several times where you thought, I really would like to be in design.

Was it looking at different clothing around the world or paintings.

So what, what inspired you?

Okay.

I have a very short story.

I'm so sorry.

I won't, uh, keep, no,

this is good.

You're you're being featured.

This is about you.

Thank you.

Actually, uh, there was this magazine for kids.

It was called, uh, (Magazine name) it's an Indian magazine for kids and it would have stories.

And at the end of this story book, there would be this drawing and coloring contest.

So when I was around maybe four or five, I really, really wanted to participate and win that.

And I think the prize was maybe I think, equivalent to five cents.

I was super excited . The, actually the instructions was you are supposed to color it and you send it via post to the office where they, , judge it and they go through that whole process.

And I did that.

I colored it.

And, uh, then after every week, every week I would ask my dad did, did, did you get any result from that office?

Did they send any mail?

What about the result?

Did I win?

Did I win?

And my dad, he saw that it mattered to me.

So after a few weeks, what he did was he got that, paper back the paper where it had my drawing and my color, and then he framed it and he got some chocolates and he came home and he said that you won.

And I was over the moon.

I was like, wow, I am born for this.

I'm like, amazing.

So that was crazy.

But now we still, actually, we still have the same framed artwork I did when I was four.

And very recently I got to know I did not win actually that

so my dad saw that, how it, how much it meant to me.

So he wanted me to believe in myself to continue this.

So he encouraged me that way and that's how I started coloring, drawing and all that.

So that's how I really got this passion.

Yes.

Wow.

That small little, you know, push.

Yes, that is fabulous.

I love that story.

What support from your parent?

My parents are my pillars.

I would say.

No matter what, no matter what they have this blind trust in their kids in me.

And they know that I would never do any wrong.

And all of my decisions are well thought of, so they have supported me like anything.

Now I think you call it helicopter parents, you know, overprotective parents who like to know every single thing their child is doing.

But my parents, know what I'm doing, because they know that I am capable of taking , care of myself.

They know that I'll be able to study my, you know, study on my own score well, and I feel that independency has brought me here.

That has made me who I am to, solve my own problems, but I tell them every single thing, the moment everyone comes from work and school or college, we all sit together.

We have a couple of Chi, Chi is basically tea with milk in it.

And we all sit together and we talk about our days and we tell them everything, but we don't expect any help when it comes to our problems because we have been taught to deal it on our own.

And that has taught us so much how to deal with people, how to deal with problems, maybe like, uh, college, politics, things like that.

And that has made me so much independent in my decision making.

So that's why the transition between high school and college choosing my own path was way easier than for other kids that I see in my class.

Yes.

And another big thing that played a big part in my, uh, passion for design was Instagram.

Actually, when I was maybe 13 or 14, I joined Instagram.

That was just for fun.

But, uh, you know, uh, they parents tell the kids don't use social media, focus on your studies.

That that was the case.

In India.

Actually during exams, they take out the entire TV and put it in the garage.

They don't want any distractions for our kids, but my parents saw me, Making art posting it on Instagram while I was having my, exams.

So my parents were very supportive in that way.

They knew that I wanted to, , relieve some stress by doing some art.

So I kept at it and I would post two artworks per week in, on my Instagram.

And at that time I would get maybe 12 likes or 10 likes.

I had that fire.

I wanted to be an influencer or some kind of a big content creator.

So I kept at it.

I kept at it.

And over the years I've seen this huge growth.

So I would say this, the goal of mine to post two times per week, twice a week, that has created this consistency in my work.

And that has showed improvement in a very big way.

Yeah.

Awesome.

So you have just stuck to your values, you've stuck to your path in your life.

Yeah.

And you've, you've taken this journey

So now let's talk about your positive imprint and the design,

yes, actually, as designers, the first thing that we were taught in college was it has to be simple.

You are designing, not for designers.

You are designing for a common man.

So he should be able to understand that what you have made, you can make maybe brush, strokes and say, this is an elephant.

This is an horse.

But until the common man doesn't understand that design has no purpose.

The fine line between design and art is the purpose and art

it can be beautiful.

It can be aesthetic, but a design has a purpose.

That's the very fine line.

So that's what I really focused on.

I just saw that two words.

It was positive and imprint.

So the first thing that popped into my mind when I, thought about imprint was my fingerprint and everybody has a different fingerprint.

So I love that quote, you have, 'what's your PI.' So that makes you what makes you unique and your fingerprint makes you unique.

And we actually did this, uh, challenge in our university.

I think this was the first day itself of college where, our, professor he gave us a challenge.

He, uh, told us all, all of us to draw, uh, shape of our hand.

So we had to keep our hand on a piece of paper and trace it and then we had to give five personalities to each finger.

When we, we finished the challenge, everybody had something absolutely unique.

You can't even compare it.

So , that makes you think that the starting point is so different

that when you go to the, towards the end product, it just, even beyond different, you can't even compare between two artworks.

But the second challenge was he gave us a printout of our horoscope or horoscope.

Pisces, Taurus, Cancer.

So everybody got their own horoscope, but it was a printout.

So maybe four or five kids from my, uh, college, they had uh, Pices the same as me.

So they had the twin fishes.

So, and we, I, I think we had to color it.

And at the end he proved it to us that the starting point for all five of you was the same.

All five of you wanted to, you had the same fishes, the same exact shape and size, but the end product is so different.

So that proves how differently we think.

No matter if the starting point is the same or different, we all end up in our own parts.

So that is what I wanted to, you know, portray that.

What makes you unique?

What's your PI?

So that imprint, that, that is one physical attribute that makes you absolutely unique.

And there's no another, they say doppelganger, you know, and a identical person, but nobody will have that fingerprint the same as you.

So I really like that.

So I wanted to have that fingerprint in my design, but then I also wanted to make it very simple, I didn't want to overcomplicate with the detail so that as I already said

Nothing else.

And then of course, positive is you.

When you smile, you are positive.

That's the positive attitude you wake up and you smile.

Your day is gonna be good.

You wake up, you know, dreadful, oh God, I have work again.

Oh God, can I sleep for 10 more minutes?

Your day is not.

Your day has not started very well.

So that smile.

I, I instantly saw that smile when I, I, , thought about that word positive.

So I just, you know, put it together.

And I came up with the simplest design.

Actually, I even, I was actually even worried.

What if someone does, , something that is more detailed, I thought, but, uh, apparently a lot of people really liked my design because how, how simple it was.

And as I said that the, we designers are not designing for designers to understand.

We are designing for the common man and a common man with no, , creative experience or anything, you know, prior experience should be able to tell what is going on.

And that was my, uh, thought process behind the design.

And I'm so happy that a lot of people voted for me and made me win this amazing contest.

Thank you.

Well,

congratulations.

I thought it was very detailed because you had the smiley face, which detailed the imprint.

It was just well done and I'm so glad you entered.

And of course the shirts , we're collaborating on getting, the shirts in my store.

And then launch your design,

like, this is, it's like a dream coming true.

And I'm so, so grateful for meeting you, Mrs.

Praiswater.

This experience this past few weeks has been just amazing.

I can't even believe I have to pinch myself that first of all, I entered a contest based in America.

People , around the world actually liked my design.

They went voted for it and, uh, I won and I have this amazing conversation with you.

This all, all of this has been this rollercoaster, so I'm just very, very happy.

Thank you so much.

And for a 19 year old, it's a really, really, really big thing for me.

I haven't, really tested out my, professional softwares yet.

Right now I use my iPad and this great software called procreate.

So an iPad is just this portable device where you can carry like your journal and go around and just jot down your, you know, notes.

So pro procreate is the software on iPad and using an apple pencil.

I was able to draw that, put all of my thoughts on not paper, but on screen.

Traditional.

Yes, fabulous.

Well, and again, congratulations.

And you certainly, took what your positive imprint is all about and put it into a, a very simple design and , it's going to look great.

I'm so excited and I can't wait to get them on, on hats and shirts and, , everything else.

And, and you'll have yours there in India.

So, absolutely.

Yeah.

And it's, it's a surreal thought to think about, you know, someone actually wearing my design and going, around their neighborhood or wherever.

That's just a very surreal thought.

It's part of your journey.

Yes.

And I think one of the things that you did was you listened to several episodes to kind of get a feel for what your positive imprint was all about.

And I, I commend you for that and thank you so much for continuing to listen and for sharing the podcast with your friends as well.

Thank you so much.

And I can't wait to share the link for this podcast now.

You need to share it with your college professor.

Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm going to the moment, the shirt comes in, I'm gonna try my best to get it on my local newspaper.

I want more people to know about positive imprint of what great work it does to talk about issues that nobody else is.

And to talk about real life problems from a common man's perspective.

And that's what all of your podcasts have been.

Uh, just this raw voice, not scripted, not, you know, Not filter.

And I feel that that is a very big responsibility that you're carrying and I commend you for that.

And I just applaud you for the work you're doing

well.

Thank you.

And now you're coming on the journey with me.

So I appreciate that.

Yes, absolutely.

Yes.

Well, thank you so much, miss Catherine

Next week, S.L.

Aditya.

contiues sharing his positive imprints, his culture in India and his thoughts on discrimination.

Next week.

Aditya.

Your positive imprint.