Each day, everyone at Springworks comes into work with a true passion for building products and tools to simplify the lives of hiring and recruiting managers. We are artists, innovators, achievers, and dreamers, with a one-track mind to fine-tune the products that we build on the blockchain, achieving precision. We showcase our team members, their roles, and what a typical day looks like for them through this series of posts. You can check all the posts here.
Vedprakash Sarkar joined Springworks in January 2020. Prior to Springworks, Ved has always worked as a freelancer.
He is from Nagpur and has completed his Bachelor’s in Technology from Lonavala, Mumbai.
Coding and Designing were two things he loved during his teenage years. When he got into college, he only studied coding and found out that he wasn’t happy about losing touch with designing.
Even though he had built half-a-dozen apps (For example, Tune In: Guitar Tuner and Toy Zombie) that got over 10K+ average playstore downloads, he soon realized that it’s not his cup of tea. He decided to leave coding behind and started to work on his design skills.
He started with a couple of internships and then took off with a few freelancing opportunities that involved creating banners, posters, placards, and book covers.
In this article, he also shares some interesting insights on working as a freelancer versus a full-time employee.
Let’s dive into it right away and take a peek into the life of a Graphic Designer at Springworks.
What skills does one need to be a Graphic Designer?
A Graphic designer transforms ideas into reality through his designs.
The ability to design eye-catching visuals that are easily understood is an essential skill. Experience with typography, color theory, and web design is also helpful.
Flexibility is important too because if the client’s vision doesn’t align with yours, you have to make the necessary adjustments. You have to be able to take criticism – clients are vocal.
And of course, you should be familiar with design software, especially Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.
Since you’ve always worked as a freelancer before joining Springworks, what differences have you seen between freelancing and a full-time job?
While working full-time, you are a part of the whole organization and get to understand the entire pipeline at the same time- it’s like your own project, starting from zero to deploying. You are with other great minds, too, that help you with suggestions to generate good ideas.
During my time at Springworks, Trivia is a good example of this.
However, when we talk about freelancers, they are assigned a specific task and are not part of the whole project. Clients only rely on them to do a particular task without the assistance of any other team member.
Hence, you’re on your own if you’re a freelancer, which is not a bad thing if you are open to that kind of freedom.
What do you find challenging about your job and how do you overcome it?
While working with Kartik (founder of Springworks), the experience is quite different because he thinks analytically and sees every design with reference to the technical front of the product.
My creative side of mind works faster while working, so when I work with him, I make sure that I get down to earth to understand the creatives in terms of the product’s technical aspects. However, it sometimes takes a little longer, but it’s fun!
Also, a creative person is likely to suffer from mental blockers when they want to create something useful. Thus, I like going for a walk to get ice cream in the middle of the afternoon. It can help generate new ideas. 🙂
Walk us through a day in the life of Ved!
- Wake up at 8 am.
- Cardio from 8.30 am.
- Have Breakfast.
- Hobby time: Digital painting.
- Meetings from 10.30 AM to 12 PM.
- Winding up the previous day’s stuff.
- Work on upcoming projects and map them out.
- Do work on my projects- 1 pm to 5.30 pm.
- Play video games for 1-2 hours.
- Work on some personal projects – 7.30 pm to 8 pm.
- Have dinner with my family.
- Chill for a while and sleep.
What is the Springworks team like?
You can reach out to people easily here. Springworks provides its employees with a good work culture. The management is extremely helpful and friendly. There is also an opportunity for Immense learning.
What advice would you give to other Graphics Designers?
It is not possible to be creative all the time. Take a break. Write your main ideas down in columns, and list absolutely everything that comes to mind. You can mix and match the lists for unusual and original combinations.
I usually roll out my 5th-6th version of one creative! I don’t even share the 1st, 2nd, and sometimes even the 3rd version unless I am satisfied with the design.
Designers are hired to think, and the art is open to suggestions, so ask your clients why you are making this! Put out questions and some suggestions to help them create something better than they had thought of.
