Friday, March 29, 2013

Interview with E-Club, Jamia University


My Interview with the Entrepreneurship Club, Jamia Millia Islamia, published in their inaugural newsletter.


Hello , Aaqib ! How are you. Your Venture and projects have been quite talked about in our Jamia Campus. So , We'll talk today about your Venture - Imagication and your Life as an Entrepreneur.
Hope you don't mind sharing your Secrets with us.
Aaqib - Of course not!

Kriti : Aaqib , tell us about what is Imagication all about and how or from where did you get the inspiration/idea to start Imagication from?
Aaqib : I would call Imagication a graphics design workshop, instead of a firm, which strives to do more than just churn out colourful computer imagery. Imagication is the art of creating magic through imagination.
The idea to start imagication was neither based on impulse nor was planned. It was a result of gradual developments in the form of work I kept experimenting with. 


Kriti : What made you decide to be a self-employed entrepreneur over a freelancer at this age?
See, there’s a thin line of difference between the two classifications you mentioned and I don’t know myself as to which one I belong more. As far as the assignments and growth are concerned, the freelancer part of me will take care of the work, and the entrepreneurial side would manage Imagication, the brand.


Kriti : Tell us about the Best logos that you've designed and for which firms/Brands?
Best is too strong a superlative which I feel too weak to use for my own work. But, there are two logos Imagication is proud to be associated with, one for MiRAAS 2013 –the annual cultural fest of Jamia and another for JMI Entrepreneurship Club. Both the initiatives provided with immense creative freedom and the logos are completely concept-driven.


Kriti What are the tools that you used to develop your client base?
In my experience, word of mouth has been the best tool which brought me some good quality of work. Social media is good for promoting your brand and getting the message across but the person-to-person network is essential to reach out to the actual potential clients.


Kriti : Just to enlighten our potential entrepreneurs , tell us about the initial struggles that you faced(any family disapproval or nagging by friends) and what did you learn from them?
I have learnt that there is no such thing as initial struggles. It continues till you are an entrepreneur. The struggle to develop new ideas, to excel, to exceed expectations, there is no end to it. But every struggle should result in some lessons.
I was not taken seriously as a designer initially, and neither paid for the work I did. Even today, most of the work is extracted from me as ‘emotional investments’. But I will soon be stopping the ‘freeware’ programme as creativity is directly proportional to time and I invest a lot in every pixel of work I produce.


Kriti :From where did you acquire the inital capital / funding needed for undertaking the functionality?
Since most of the work I do is computer-based I didn't really need any special investment as my laptop is able to process all the heavy graphics with ease. And since my father is also a graphics designer, I already had the required set of softwares saving me from any additional investments. The marketing is currently all based on word of mouth and the facebook page, but I hope to invest on publicity and expansion at a later stage.


Kriti : If you were to advise an upcoming entrepreneur who is just about to start up his venture , what would that be ?
I am no one to dole out advices yet. But observing a strand of grey hair on my head, I would like to say that entrepreneurs should start young. Youth is the phase when you can take risks, when you have whole life to steer and control the flow of events. Ideas are important, money will follow – both investments and returns. Everyone has an entrepreneur in them, and what better time to discover it than now.


The interview as published in the E-Club, JMI's Magazine, 

To keep up with Imagication designs, you can log on to the facebook page: facebook.com/imagication.creatives


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