Word designers

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No matter how old we get, we all love gifts. While in this day and age, a good rare LP or some football memorabilia is only a click away, several people still gush at the idea of receiving personalised presents.

And why not? Personalised presents are what make people love the whole gifting process anyway. Using words creatively and visualising true to life images, several young wizards are documenting your love story, helping you propose or simply giving you a specially crafted slice of your history. We look at youngsters, who in their own innovative way, are making moments more special and personal.

Book, line and sinker:
Jyoti Ramnath

In the age of the iPad and the Kindle, some still swear by the tactile experience of reading. Book lovers have at some point in time or the other imagined themselves as the protagonist in their favourite books. Bengaluru-based Jyoti Ramnath’s talented team at craftmygift.com have now made that possible.
Six years into working with Hewlett Packard, Jyoti casually attended a programme at IIM, Bangalore, to hone her entrepreneurial skills. At the end of the programme, she had to chalk out a business plan. That’s when craftmygift.com was born.
“The site has a whole lot of gifting options but the most highly purchased one is the storybook. People want the storybook when they want to gift something to a loved one. They place the order online and write in details about the recipient. We do the story writing, get it reviewed by them and start designing the book,” says Jyoti. One of her favourite stories was that of a broken-hearted girl. She says, “This girl had split with her boyfriend and wanted the book to help win him back. She revealed so many personal things so as to get the mood of the book spot-on. She was really happy with the end result.”
Jyoti was thrilled that she was instrumental in an attempt to mend a relationship. “I’ve seen a lot of people open up and I always wondered how they can do it with a third person. But at the end of it all, we work with emotions and it is deeply satisfying.”

Strumming with comics:
Kamna Mirchandani and Kalpesh Patel

A KPMG executive dumped her consultant job to brainstorm and conceptualise a personalised comic business Lifestrummer with her graphic designer husband. Canada-based Kalpesh Patel’s pictorial tribute of his love story with Mumbai-origin wife Kamna more than wooed her — it lead to a business plan.
“I worked as a storyboard artist, helping many talented filmmakers to visualise their shots. I also worked as a graphic designer, where I got to sharpen my sense of aesthetics,” says Kalpesh, adding, “Kamna (Kimi) battled her way through the corporate world, amassing an arsenal of business wisdom.”
Egged on by his wife’s reaction to his comic book, Kalpesh went on to create more comic strips about them and would put it up on Facebook and on their blog every Thursday. “We had an amazing response. Kimi, the whiz business woman that she is, had the idea of ‘monetising’ it by offering the comic creation service to others. We wanted to tell stories, we wanted to have fun and make a living out of it too,” he adds.
The process is time-consuming and requires a lot of personal involvement. “We get to know the client and his vision, while learning about his special story. The aura I get through the initial phone call and subsequent email exchanges direct the creation process and help me come up with a theme. So the client’s personality permeates through every aspect of the design including the colours, the character’s body movement, facial expressions, etc. All these impressions are fed into the creation of the blueprint. The client gives us their feedback. This back and forth continues until the blueprint is spot-on. The whole process could take 8 to 12 weeks, depending on scope of the project and the length of the story,” explains Kalpesh.
Everybody loves comic books and while the idea of “comic-ising” your story might sound appealing at first, there aren’t too many people who understand just what goes into creating a comic book.
“It’s art, it’s passion, it’s that spark and of course, it’s a lot of hard work. It’s a very niche market and the goal is to reach out to genuine art lovers. It’s a high risk endeavour that means giving up a stable pay cheque. With that, your priorities change, your whole world revolves around making sure your business succeeds. It also means sacrifice. But once you make a commitment to it, there’s a sense of joy and fulfilment unlike anything you’ve ever known,” Kamna says.

Go down and across:
Yazad Dotivala

Yazad was introduced to crosswords very early on, what with his father supplying crosswords to every major English newspaper in the country.
Halfway through his engineering course, Mumbai-based Yazad lost interest and chose to play with words instead. While Yazad continued his father’s legacy, he also started to make personalised ones for friends on special occasions.
That sparked a major interest in customised crosswords and today everyone from men who want to propose to their girls (in that oh-so-cute straight from the movies way) to families who want to honour an octogenarian are turning to the simple crossword to make their day special.
“The process is usually quite straightforward. I ask the person gifting what they have in mind. If they do, I try and accommodate their ideas. Else I suggest making the crossword about the recipient of the gift. I ask them to send me whatever info they can think of about the person: what they are into, where were they born, likes, dislikes, a friend’s name... anything that can be used as a clue,” says Yazad, who then goes on to creating a template with a story to tell.
It’s not easy to think of new ideas for puzzles, figuring out what the client wants and catering to that. Yet the end product is as deeply satisfying as the process. “One lady contacted me to make it for her friend. She wanted me to add words, she even manually redesigned some of the crossword. It was quite nice to see someone take such a pro-active role in their present.”