Here is the long version of our ‘looking-for-people’ document: bit.ly/WorkWithKL11. The short version is that we will be very happy to take care of graphic design graduates well. (As well as a two-three-four-person-run-studio out of Kozhikode honestly can; both in gold and adventure.) We have waited very many years to be able to afford the luxury of mentoring young graduates. As always, Codesign and Girish and Suresh and the many great mentors we have had, are the benchmark we’re chasing. And that bench is admittedly marked sky-high. Ha.

Gold and Adventure

On a dimly lit, chilly Gurgaon evening, Ghate (Abhishek) spoke to us about Gold and Adventure. Two things one seeks from a ‘job’ of any kind. Enough of a challenge so the milestones feel not like accidents but like discoveries and delight. Enough moolah so the whole thing doesn’t slide into a maggi-for-three-meals type situation. Most small (count us in) studios can’t afford to pay people what they truly deserve (compared to true corporates). People like Co did the best they could and we were happily in the top one-percent of studio-salaries. (No Maggi-days in three years.) Most often, it is basic maths winning over the urge to do (what to us is) honest work. When we started KL11 in 2014, we took out bus-money for salary. For many years. All our insurance payments lapsed, we stopped buying books and other luxury items, tea was limited to Swami’s and Bombay (who sold heart-melting stuff at pocket-friendly prices; and still do), walked to and from the bus-stop, etcetera. The adventure far outweighed the gold and that was alright. Long story later. The point is that we are trying to do the gold-adventure-mix right-ish for fresh-graduates. And it looks like we can, now.

Graphic Design with a Capital G

For these projects, we want to work with (and mentor) people who live and breathe forms, compositions and usable gestalt-principles. While we (mostly M) takes care of the business end of things, whoever steps up can stick to their roots, stick to what they explored in the classrooms. For that reason, we’re not necessarily looking at good-looking mockups and three-dimensional renders of not-so-resolved forms. Not that we have anything against such stuff per-se. Just that one can read way better from a well-made resume that respects readability and our intelligence. One typeface (maybe two), one or two sizes in the scale, supersorted groups and hierarchy. That is it. I’m looking forward to some exciting work. I hear it is hard to find people who stick to graphic design in the not-so-old-but-fairly-old-fashioned way of forms and blacks and whites and foundations. I want to believe otherwise. From under this rock. Yes.

Other Stuff

Logged in to Instagram on my phone after ten years-ish of deleting my own account. While I do hog R’s phone to look at cat pictures often, this is some other level of timesink doing that scroll on your own device. Not for me.

The evenings in Wayanad are bliss. Evenings with R and Chelgato sweeten the deal. Mathayi helps.