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Not many Creatives have been with us for more than five years, but there are a handful who have been here since Designity’s earliest days!
And because we can’t appreciate their hard work and dedication enough, we’re going to give you an opportunity to get to know one of our longest-standing Designity Creatives.
From a college kid working at a sports newspaper to one of Designity’s Pro motion graphics designers, this is one origin story you’re not going to want to miss! Today’s blog is a 1:1 with one of Designity OGs, Arash S., so you can see his work and learn some surprising things about this talented Creative that you might not have known before!
Pull up a chair because it’s time to meet Arash!
How did you get into motion graphics? What’s your origin story?
Everyone knows me as a motion graphics designer, but I’ve only been doing motion graphics for just six or seven years. I had no experience before that.
Before Designity, I had little experience in motion graphics, but after joining Designity, I practiced and learned a lot; in fact, I started my career as a page layout designer in a newspaper.
*Check out Arash's work in an animation project for RES shown below!
You weren’t originally a motion graphics designer?!
No. In those days, we worked with PageMaker, usually because people didn’t work with InDesign; it was super new, and the initial versions did not support RTL languages. Usually, people who worked for printed media worked with PageMaker or QuarkXPress.
My brother taught me how to work with PageMaker and Photoshop. I started working for a newspaper as a side job because I was a computer engineering student looking to earn some money while focusing on my major.
After a while, I thought, “I like this more than IT.” That’s why it took me 7 years to finish University.
But it gave me everything.
I tried a few times to change my career, like retailing business. But the part that I liked most, even in that business, was designing the website or taking pictures of products.
I said, “Okay, whatever I do, I tend to go back to graphic design. Let’s focus on that and stay with that. Graphic design is my destiny.”
So, how did you become the go-to for motion graphics here at Designity?
I learned how to use PageMaker and Photoshop 20 years ago in a newspaper. During that time, I also learned a bit with Illustrator.
Then, about 7 or 8 years ago, I started doing something fun with my friends with AfterEffects; I made a funny video.
And one of my friends who was in the video-making and video-editing field called me and said, “Do you know how to use AfterEffects?”
I said, “A little bit. I have a funny video, but I’m not sure it can be included in a portfolio.” But I sent it to him, and he sent me back a smiley face and said, “I believe you can do what I’m looking for.”
So, I started learning Premiere and After Effects but wasn’t proficient.
With Designity, as time passed, I started getting more difficult motion graphics projects, one by one, which meant I had to study more and learn more tricks.
What was your first creative-related job?
In my second year of University, I started working for a sports newspaper. We were using Pagemaker and Photoshop.
PageMaker was old-fashioned software. It had only one undoing step (Ctrl Z) and many weird errors, but it was the only option. Then something changed my life. One day, I was going with my classmates and friends to a book exhibition. There, I saw a tutorial book for InDesign.
I read that book three times.
Back then, very few people knew how to work with InDesign, which made me unique because when InDesign was in demand, I was one of those rare people who knew how to use it.
That made everything different for me; people from other newspapers and magazines started to know my name, which led to more projects for me.
How did your career lead you to Designity?
My family and I immigrated from Iran to Canada around five years ago. I was looking for a job, but the big problem was that I didn’t officially study graphic design.
My degree is in computer engineering, and all my experience is in graphic design. In Canada, it’s not easy to get a job like that. But my wife sent me an ad from a CD from Designity, and he mentioned some skills. If you have any of these skills, you can work with us.
I had 90% of those skills, so I sent in my CV but didn’t hear back. After 6 months, I tried again, but this time, I sent a message from my official Instagram with my portfolio.
When he responded, he saw my previous work and said, “I have something for you.”
He noticed I’m a video guy, and back then, Designity didn’t have anybody for video. So, that’s how I connected with Designity. I’m probably one of six or seven official Designity employees still working here.
I started at the end of 2019.
What is your favorite kind of project to take on?
It was always my dream for someone to call me a motion graphics designer.
So, yeah, motion graphics. It feels satisfying to make still objects in a scene come to life.
I prefer videos, but I would love for people to know me for all of my skills because I’m not just limited to video projects!
What has been your most challenging project?
On project brief: It was a motion graphic project. I was terrified once I saw the storyboard because it was an animation project. I had no experience with animation at the time. When I say animation, I mean rigging characters.
At first, I said, “No, I can’t; that’s not my field.”
However, the CD encouraged me to accept that project and convinced me I could do it. It was super stressful; I had to learn a lot in a tight turnaround, but eventually, I did it, and the client was pleased with the final result.
*The animation project in question is shown above! Click and have a look!
What is your favorite thing about working at Designity?
It’s not just one thing.
There is always an opportunity to learn more at Designity. Working here always pushes me to update my skills; I have to; otherwise, I’ll miss out on projects.
And the community. We’re many people, and working together, we see so many talents from which to learn.
One more important thing. When you work for one company, you see just one brand book, and everything usually becomes routine and repetitive after a while. But at Designity, so far, I’ve seen more than 50 different brand books with different tastes, and by having that, you learn so much about branding and various types of demands. It’s not an opportunity everybody gets.
Designity is not only a job for me; it’s a lifesaver. On those days when I was disappointed about finding a job in my field, Designity trusted me and allowed me to prove my skills.
How do you keep yourself up to date with design trends?
I don’t need to!
It’s like, “Hey, do you know how to make HTML ads? No? Okay, this is a tutorial; this is the project. Here you go, do it.”
I learned Adobe Animation like that. I had a project, and I just had to do it.
Working at Designity, you see all these different needs, and you just have to learn new things.
Is there any insight you can give about current design trends or tools?
These days, I would say what everyone is saying about AI. I believe it’s a concern of lots of people that they’re gonna be replaced with AI.
However, it can’t be a replacement for you, at least as a talented graphic designer, but it can make life much easier.
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
*Animation created for IG shown above
When I’m working and not doing a video where I need to listen to syncing, I’m always listening to historical podcasts.
I like playing PlayStation with my daughter when I’m not working. She watches me and critiques my playing. I have two daughters; one is eight, and the other is a year and a half.
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Do you have any words of inspiration for Creatives?
Watch. Learn. Practice.
Don’t give up, and don’t insist. If something is going to happen, be patient because it will happen.
