194 abcd d:istinkt | BULGARIA викателството. Като част от екипа на d:istinkt се радва, че е в една по-различна агенция. Вярва, че допринася със специфичен дизайнерски почерк, който я отличава: „В тази посока сме тръгнали с уебсайта на аген- цията, модерен и смел, с новото ни лого, със социалните ни про- фили. Показваме собствен стил като дизайн, с доста положителни коментари от клиенти и партньори. Вървим в посоката да покажем, че не сме просто комуникационна агенция, а че имаме характер. Това различно мислене е част от нещата, които предлагаме на кли- ентите си, и те го очакват от нас.“ THE WAY WE ‘Talent is kind of wired into you, but you have to develop it — with work, experience, projects. The people around you are also important — whether they push you further and higher or they bring SHOWCASE OUR you down psychologically’, he says. He applied for his first job without having prepared a portfolio, with only a few computer-generated WORK PUTS OUT illustrations. His path from an intern to senior graphic designer and visual guru at d:istinkt has been through hands-on work and THE MESSAGE THAT increasingly complex assignments. From designing a simple banner to a 360-degree campaign for a variety of clients, it all gives him a different perspective on things and a wealth of hands-on experience. WE ARE NOT JUST ‘One of the challenges in our job is that we have to be very dynamic and work expeditiously and creatively to meet the client’s expectations,’ A COMMUNICATION Nikolay says. For him, a campaign is not just about creating an identity, but a collection of work by many people in different areas, AGENCY, BUT HAVE and the vision has to be the link between the different parts. He likes the opportunity to develop and enrich the main visual concept during the campaign, so that people don‘t get bored because they will simply CHARACTER TOO stop seeing and perceiving. But there is an important hurdle before the concept comes to We talk to Nikolay Serdarov, Senior Graphic Designer at life — presenting the idea, defending it and showing how it will stand d:istinkt, about the power of creativity and the role of design out in a real environment, Niki says. ‘We believe in creative, but the in a PR agency. client has to believe in what we‘re proposing. With a sound rationale, the idea is more readily accepted by clients, plus you can better see ikolay Serdarov is a senior graphic designer responsible for yourself why a certain approach will work or needs to be changed.’ for the visual approach at d:istinkt. He is convinced that a In stressful moments, the experience of the team and the ability vision should not only be beautiful and attractive, but above to organise the process are key to the success of a campaign. N And a practised hand and masterful technique, gained over nearly N all functional, having the ability to speak to the user. It is eight years of assiduous work, are a valuable boost to speed and not just an illustration, but the solution to a problem, the carrier of a quality. See, on inspiration, things are more complicated, Niki admits. specific message. In short, it has to work. Sometimes he comes up with an excellent idea, but it just doesn‘t fit Niki himself, besides having worked as a designer for seven years, a particular client. He often needs time to rethink an idea, but once is a master of the homemade pie, which definitely won the team’s he starts working on it, the process itself gets in the way. Niki draws affections right from the start. He escapes boredom headlong and inspiration from the people around him. ‘The team is like a family enjoys learning new techniques, venturing into unknown areas of and it‘s important to feel good at work,’ he says. He values people design, and developing different incarnations of the visual concept. disagreeing with him to get him out of his zone of the usual and seek He inherited his artistic flair from his mother. Although she graduated the different, the challenging. from a mechanical engineering school and then went on to study As part of the d:istinkt team, he enjoys being part of a different computer science, Nikki became passionate about drawing. At first, agency. ‘This is what we’ve done with the agency website, modern he drew eyes, geometric shapes, and with the first computer in 5th and bold, with our new logo, and our social profiles. We showcase grade came his first attempts at drawing with a mouse. When he our own style as a design, with a lot of positive comments from discovered Photoshop, he was hooked and followed online training clients and partners. We are putting out the message that we are not videos to teach himself how to use it. Looking back, he remembers just a communications agency, but have character too. This different the feeling of satisfaction and the moment of realising that he thinking is part and parcel of what we offer to our clients, and they wanted his hobby to be his career of choice. have come to expect it from us.’