Gandhar Vamburkar: The Grit to Stay Put
Graphic Designer
by Elizabeth Lavis
|26 Dec 2023
While Gandhar Vamburkar, graphic designer and procrastinator extraordinaire, considers himself still an aspiring designer, his triple-award winning work, including two gold and one silver Indigo Awards, certainly makes him an important one to watch. He also has some valuable advice for other up-and-comers hoping to succeed in this ultra-competitive industry. “This is a tough field with a long gestation and strong competition,” he says. “You can only survive when you have passion and genuine creativity. It takes a lot of grit to stay put, follow your instinct, and deliver.” Vamburkar also notes that designers have to walk a delicate balance between creating unique designs and delivering the product a client expects.
Indian-born Vamburkar comes from a diversely educated family, and he grew up with a sense of solid pride for his culture and heritage coupled with respect for global knowledge and an interest in and acceptance of contemporary concepts and lifestyle. “The vibrancy of social life, continuous festivities, diversity, and extremely rich legacy in every field of knowledge reflects my design style and thought,” he says. “My style is simple yet intelligently impactful. I draw a lot from my Indian roots but can effectively merge them with global, contemporary design trends. However, I believe in setting my own trends.”
Vamburkar stumbled into graphic design almost by mistake. “In my second year of engineering school, I was the Editor-in-Chief of our college magazine. Since it was a college magazine, we were naturally short-staffed, so I had to put on many hats, including that of a graphic designer.” After school, Vamburkar designed UI elements for an engineering device, which made him seriously consider graphic design as a career option. “I realized that I wanted to transition from the technical problem-solving of engineering to the visual problem-solving of graphic design,” he says.
"Kagaz", Gandhar Vamburkar
His design approach hinges on fully grasping the client’s objective and doing his due diligence, research-wise, to address it in the best manner. “No matter what project I’m taking on, the primary concern is always to understand and address the client's needs,” he says. “The first step in doing so is listening to the client,” Vamburkar explains that it’s essential to understand what you’re trying to achieve in perfect clarity before putting pen to paper. “It gives you confidence and ease when you start designing, and the visuals just come to you naturally,” he says.
Vamburkar also cautions not to center oneself too much in the project. “The goal of a professional designer must be to make a design that fulfills the need of their client, and not just pacify creative lust,” he says. Keeping the client’s needs front and center and always top-of-mind is just one way Vamburkar can establish good relationships and rapport with clients. “I believe that transparency is the key to trust,” he says. “My pitch document is very detailed, and it defines each deliverable meticulously in a language they will understand. I strictly adhere to promised dates and go the extra mile to deliver quality.”
Vamburkar hopes to have his own studio and be an upcoming and respected designer in the next five years. “Doing this will be one step in fulfilling my dream to be a trendsetter in the design field,” he says.
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