Visual artist, filmmaker, mechanical engineer, art director, animation director, musician – these are some of the feathers on Vinod Ravindranathan’s cap. His success story is that of a person who followed their passion. It takes quite a lot of courage and guts to quit one’s job and follow our heart’s way, isn’t it? Now that is exactly what Vinod Ravindranathan did!
Being a self-taught visual designer, Vinod has been able to collaborate with some great artists. As a result, he got to be part of some amazing projects as well. The first camera that he bought with his first salary, a NikonD3100, is what he owes his thanks. His design journey started as he donned the role of a photographer for gigs and weddings between his engineering job. Moreover, this part-time job gave him the confidence to leave his corporate job and follow his heart’s calling.
Kickstarting Design
After quitting the job, he joined a diploma course in design in Bangalore, where he worked as a percussionist. He also got the opportunity to work with stalwarts in the industry like Ustad Fazal Qureshi, Louis Banks, Keith Peters, Dhru Ghanekar, Suraj Mani and more. Meanwhile, he also had his design works running parallelly. He was making videos with bands like Masala Coffee during this period. Joining the design team of Cheil Worldwide gave him a new perspective on design in advertising. He worked with design director Prerna Mehra to create the brand identity of Samsung Opera House, Samsung’s largest retail store in Asia. He also got involved in some projects for MTV, Twitter and Skechers when he moved on to work with Leo Burnett.
Vinod’s Drive for Design
The music video “Everything’s Fine?”Vinod directed for singer Sanjeeta Bhattacharya featuring Eshna Kutty was one that received a lot of appreciation. It was not just acknowledged but was featured and won at a few film festivals around the world. This was a gamechanger for Vinod Ravindranathan as it led him to decide to quit his job at Leo Burnett to explore freelance projects in motion graphics.
Having been heavily influenced by the visual techniques of many filmmakers, Vinod tries to incorporate them in his videos. He loves to blend live footage with animation, which offers a visual treat to the audience as well. “Touch”, the music video he directed for musician Karsh Kale uses animations that are quite psychedelic. This helps to visually depict the psyche of a girl who enters a world in which she is free. His most recent directorial venture was for Minnal Murali, a Malayalam superhero film that created quite a buzz. This comic book style music video from the movie has gained over 5 million views on YouTube.
Vinod’s Inspirations
Vinod Ravindranathan’s inspiration comes from a lot of mixed media works done all around the world. Certain works of Oscar Hudson and Carl Addy move him immensely to come up with unique ways of execution. We can see Vinod’s love for music and design in the music video “Kozhi punk”. He likes to blend his love for both across different mediums. Vinod Ravindranathan would definitely come up with more visually pleasing projects that would leave us wanting more!
