Fully-equipped with capabilities in Design, Photography, Munz TDT is the creative lead at dunzo.
In his years of experience as a designer, his keen area of interest lies in Branding, Digital Advertising, and Cinematography.
To dig in more deeper, read further what he has to share about his experience and his insight to the brand!
How did you start your journey as a designer?
Photography was a gateway to the design world for me and I started my career as a photographer. It started with me assisting for wedding shoots and it gave me a better understanding of the tools and the technical aspects like post-production. I discovered how important it is to have ample breathing space in a picture, as opposed to other situations that required a compact shot with a tighter frame. The time I spent working with shoots and photography helped me build a strong foundation that led me towards design. I slowly started picking up personal projects and posters during this period, and it became more apparent to me that I wanted to pursue a career in design.
I decided to move to Bangalore, as I knew there was an active community & a culture of advertising with bigger opportunities waiting for me, and it turned out to be one of my best decisions. I got the chance to work with a few advertising agencies and a few product companies over the past 10-12 years. Each job had a different set of challenges for me, but I got the opportunity to work with some bright minds, who have become friends, and some mentors.
What tools, books, or ideas help you in your day-to-day work?
Tool: This could be different for different teams, but I find Whatsapp to be the most handy communication medium to get the message across and get moving without delay. What i’ve also found amusing is that Whatsapp notifications give people less anxiety as compared to a Slack, Gmail or Jira notification. Given the current context of our lives, it is more important for us to understand each other better and make quick decisions as we go. Of course, we also use the Adobe suite for everything design related, with further additions like Figma, Procreate and Logic depending on the projects that we handle. It is an obvious thing to say that Zoom has now become an integral part of our day-to-day affairs.
Idea: When I look back at my career, the thing that I find particularly interesting is how the places we look for ideas have changed; rather evolved. Of course I still look at the work that gets put out by other brands and agencies, and understand how they arrived at a certain campaign or creative, but more than that we have a few yardsticks by which we measure our ideas. At D457, we have been trying to experiment with different approaches when it comes to creating campaigns. It was a gradual process as we arrived at this; we realised that design strategies change according to your user sets, so we don’t depend on one formula but many.
Effort Vs Reward is one way to measure the idea; sometimes it’s important not to get lost in the idea, but focus on what is the desired outcome you need out of an idea or campaign. It is a good way to reflect on if an idea is worth pursuing or could it be achieved with less effort.
Always look at the data! This may not be the most friendly concept, because you need to know when to resort to this and when you should bypass it. It all depends on time & whether you have access to relevant data or not. Nonetheless, it holds great value and will help you narrow down the creative process in an effective way.
Tactical Design Approach- there are times you need to be clever with your design and copy, while there are other times when you HAVE to get to the point immediately. On such occasions an aesthetically pleasing design might not do the trick; you need to make the design familiar and the content obvious to the customer. This approach may not always look original but it effectively drives the message home.
How do you stay upbeat with the cutting-edge creative technologies and tools?
In this age and technology, you don’t have to worry about technology and information not reaching you. Even though we throw around words like FOMO, I believe that if you are surrounded by the right set of people, the information finds its way anyhow. So in D457, we make it a point to have casual conversations & discussions within our team that doesn’t always revolve around work, and with the varied set of people in our team, we get to know a little about everything.
Also in my line of work I feel like we already have more than we need to create.
Can you tell us about the most challenging project you’ve ever worked on? How did you handle it?
The most challenging work I have done is the music videos I had directed for this band called Agam. The challenge was to finish 6 live music videos, 1 thematic music video, 2 photoshoots, 16 interviews with 40 musicians in just 2 days.
We shot the project with some of the best equipment one could opt for, and I had an amazing crew to work with, which just amplified the quality of the project. Some of my crew members did not come from the same field of profession, but had exceptional talent in the roles they played for the production. What made this special for me was how the outcome was exactly how I had imagined when I picked up the project, and that is a satisfying feeling.
We had planned this meticulously and every passing minute and hour was accounted for, since we were on the clock and had no time to waste. Needless to say, we spent two sleepless nights to find the final words- ‘Pack Up!’
What is the most challenging and interesting thing about being the Creative Director of Dunzo?
Take me back 10 years and I would have never thought about saying this- but the most challenging and interesting part is having the same client and still make great work.
But the point also is that here at Dunzo, its not just about handling marketing or design, i find myself getting involved with projects that span from writing scripts, making animated short films, marketing strategies; and at the moment, working on Dunzo’s new workspace and its design. So everyday I’m able to do something new here which is challenging and demanding enough for me to push myself.
Any advice you would like to give young designers just starting out?
It’s not about making everything beautiful. Functionality always matters.
Don’t be afraid to look at the numbers. Make a good relationship with data.
Testing is good.
At some point in your career, you will end up specialising in something but until then, make sure you explore all major areas in design and try to gain basic knowledge in everything. More importantly, learn from your peers, they are the best way for you to understand a new line of creativity; utilise that opportunity.
Also, stay bold and dive in!
We’ll said.