I always have been interested in exploring things, places and nature that my habit lead me to go out in wilderness where I used to enjoy quietude, sound of wind and singing of birds. I was always good in drawing at my school despite the fact I belong to a family that produced engineers mostly. The calm atmosphere of that place strengthened my artistic spirit and soon I developed my interest in poetry and in fact started writing poem etc. Luckily, when I joined my higher secondary school a new teacher was appointed for drawing, who was a very well known figure in that area for calligraphy. Seeing my interest and passion he asked me to visit his place after school one day and then - I spent next four years going to his Bathak (studio) to learn calligraphy. Now, I truly credit him (Sir. Zakir Chughtai) for providing me a solid base (after my mother) that helped me a lot when I joined my art college four years latter.

My childhood is so fascinating and natural that I still remember each and every day. That place was so marvelous that I never wanted to leave but to move on the next step of the ladder I had to make my mind.

One day I sat in a bus and after 14 hours of non-stop traveling I was at Lahore, in a crowed of 7 million people, where I did my graduation in Graphic Design, started my career as a New Media Designer and up till typing these lines from 169-D, I am still in Lahore.

2. When did you set up your web site www.asifrnaqvi.com, describe more about the process?
Actually I started working on the idea in late ’99 but for the next two years despite creating several prototypes I couldn’t fix my mind for any one. The most difficult part being a designer is to convince own self. During the whole process I reacted to my own work as a client – is that what I really need?

Creative process cannot be defined or explained without activity, objectivity, target and methodology. From the very first day I was not designing a site for everyone on the web. The site expects a certain level of interactive design vocabulary and experience from its visitors. ARNDC (asifrnaqvi.com) is specifically designed for New Media Designers/Professionals, Art/Creative Directors and for those who have relevant knowledge and background. The concept behind was to create a user experience not just an online presence - no wonder many usability standards or rules are not followed on the site that I always go for on my clients’ projects.

On the web we have very little time to grab visitors’ attention and to make them decide whether to proceed or not from homepage. Keeping in mind the target audience that was quite difficult to make them sit and proceed and keep proceeding till the last page of the site. My priority when start working on any project is to create a strong visual impact and a prompt for users to explore more, but before creating such effect have to settle all issues regarding content management, information flow, usability, scalability and interaction design. After covering all those issues on ARNDC the most challenging part was to design & develop a visual language to convey my message.

Today on the web most of the sites or let’s say 50 to 60 percent of designed sites have very (as I say) mechanical and industrialized look-n-feel, with too much of distracting elements and activities. I don’t know who introduced that trend but in reaction to that I wanted to cerate a breathing space over the net and other-than-usual-stuff. After a comprehensive study of online design and what’s available I decided to break some rules and standards, as I don’t believe in design standardization. Content management, navigation or visuals I treated every aspect of the site individually (but considering that a part of a single project) that took me almost three months working non-stop to complete the project.

ARNDC went online in March 2002 and attracted more than 22000 unique targeted visitors from all over the world in its first year. Received many awards, features and accolades also generating business for my freelance setup - although, that was not designed to serve that purpose.

3. How many members/partners in your web team?
Asif R Naqvi Dot Com is basically a small New Media Design setup specializing in interactive design for web based and distributed mediums, also providing innovative graphic design services for conventional medias, art/creative directions and identity management/development. I established partnerships with many other specialists in areas such as back-end programming, flash action scripting and 3D animation - making it possible to offer a full spectrum of services from a single source. Yet because the setup remains small I am able to maintain a very direct, informal and open contact with all of my clients.

4. Where and what did you study in school?
I graduated from National College of Arts, Lahore, in 1998 with Graphic Design as major, Photography, Print Making and Computer Graphics as minors. NCA is one of the top art colleges around and more than 130 years old history started as Mayo School of Oriental Arts.

5. What’s your aim about creation and design for the near future?
Interesting question, as time passes I foresee a substantial growth for design as a quality and virtue of everyday life. Our lives are getting more and more designed and/or design oriented. We eat, sleep and work in a designed world & environments - designed in a way that was never before. Technology providing paths for design and creation, in return design and art excellence challenging technology limits that in return creating more avenues for many possibilities. It’s a progressive cycle where one is always at a higher point when completes one circle.

Sometimes think don’t need to plan for future specifically, as my every move in my field shapes my future for me.

6. Describe your works' special features.
If there’s something special in my work, that could be the ‘approach’. Like I said, I want to design user experience not just eye candies. Design has to be functional but at the same time it should be situational, emotional and somewhat personal (saying that very carefully). I give priority and very importance to content management and flow of information, if that is not laid out well then don’t expect any great visuals could cover up overall design malfunctioning and navigational issues after all interactive design is about extensive planning and user-friendly functionalities.

Site scalability is another concern of mine in the design process. I always ask my clients where do they see their sites after several years and their future plans about that, how long they want to keep it online. What’s anticipated in terms of site additions, updating etc.

7. How did you combine perfectly your graphic design with audio?
In multimedia … or lets say in art - for a greater understanding, all of its elements, facets, aspects and forms are interlinked. One supports other one … and the impact could be from 1+1=2 to 1+1=11. That is a simple definition of the impact if any two art forms combined. I also believe as many human senses involved in any project the response, reaction and involvement get stronger, to me sound is one of the elements that advocate existence & substance no wonder static images find life with music (am sure most of you have experienced slide shows with some music in the background at whatever places). Keeping in mind the mood my graphics could create on a viewer’s mind (which is not always predictable!) I chose that very strings.

8. Usually, how do you start designing? (Take any one case, you'd like, was inspired from what, who, how or any steps followed, please kindly present the process details for us.)
Let’s start with a small project that I just finished for ‘LAAL’, an art organization based in Canada promoting & introducing art and life of a Pakistani artist Zahoor-ul-Akhlaq and the contribution he made to contemporary South Asian art in the last four decades of the 20th century.

LAAL wanted to have a site reflecting Zahoor, his art, personality & passion, and they were very much predetermined what they wanted (in fact made sketches in Photoshop) but unaware with the limitations on web. So, one thing was very clear – site should look like inspired by Zahoor’s work and further prompt user exploring his work and life, at the same time the site was also about LAAL, the art organization.

After having a detailed discussion with the client I concluded they were so much into the artist’s work, life and way of seeing things that there was no room to propose anything else other than what they knew and familiar with.

Before starting any project I collect as much information about client and their project as possible, usually ask for their competitors and their sites – what’s good/bad about them as that helps defining and polishing scope of work and challenges in a job, but in LAAL’s case there was nothing like that. After a preliminary study of the job and defining scope of work I started collecting contents, which was basically in form of a book published on Zahoor by LAAL.

The first stage in a design process for any interactive project is content management, and then comes flow of information and navigational architecture. I cover issues related to user interaction, site’s scalability, and usability at this stage. This stage defines scope of work in a practical way, what exactly required and what’s not. Once all those issues settled a functional sitemap is created along with detailed information architecture.

Next step is where have to decide how front-end would be looking – yes, at this stage design proposals or prototypes created for clients. There was only two options proposed for LAAL website and client selected the one I already knew. After some tweaking and additions the look-n-feel was approved by the client, they were very happy in fact as things were proceeding and with the way their Takhti (Takhti is a reusable South Asian writing tablet that children use in order to practice their calligraphic strokes) Exhibition logo was explained. There were some eight takhtis used to form a logo for the 2003 Takhti Exhibition in Toronto but no one could understand the shape of a takhti in that logo there in North America, flash animation helped a lot to explain the concept behind.

Third step is production – everything has to be clear and ready at this stage, technology, design, color scheme, layout/grid for each and every page of the site. A fully functional and brows-able version is created and presented to clients, after testing on target platforms & browsers, for final approval.

Fourth and last step is deployment, in case of LAAL they didn’t have any domain registered and hosting idea. They were suggested for a hosting service considering their future needs (for an online forum).

9. So far, which are your favorite and the satisfying works? And Why?
In fact there are many but I would like to mention LAAL as a case study. That was interesting to work with those people and I really enjoyed that – not only because the job was challenging but also client’s background. There was a group of a Canadian Photographer, a Welsh writer and a Canadian-Pakistani Potter who wanted this site online as soon as possible.

First problem was identity they were so much into the artist and his work that forgot they basically need a site for LAAL (Organization) to promote the Zahoor (artist). That was primarily because the book they published on Zahoor, that book and its design was also coinciding at several stages, as client having no previous web design experience that was quiet difficult to convince why a particular font for text is changed on the site and not the same as in the book but over all the client proved to be very understanding, accept and learnt all the changes to their basic ideas and sketches that usually happen when something translated for interactive medium and specially for web.

10. Any special message do you want to communicate with your works?
Well, in most of the projects I communicate what my clients want, other than that my personal work (under ‘Just Kidding’ on my site) is very objective and straightforward. In commercial project as a designer we all know there’s not much room to satisfy ourselves, I started digital art in reaction to that frustration – not only to enjoy freedom but also to say and express that I ever wanted to.

11. Are there any special projects that you're planning now?
Yes, there are a few in fact. Want to do some online documentary projects and a portal for design by invitation only and a forum.
Some painting … and will try setting up a design and identity management firm.

12. Do all your partners/clients come from Pakistan? What about the cultural differences between you them?
Not necessarily, most of my clients belong to North America and then comes Europe. I also do local projects but very selective. There’s definitely a difference between working for developed and developing markets, and clients’ expectations vary a lot according to their cultural backgrounds but after spending several years in this field I am used to switching between modes and states of mind as per job and target audience. I find European clientele more challenging than North American despite that’s all West but taste differs from coast to coast. Working for European market means I’ll have to be very minimalist in design. My focus would be (in simple words) grids and layouts basically - then might be some icons, text and finally big flat boxes of bright & fresh colors or simple pictures or line drawings, I find it challenging because it’s difficult to keep it away from becoming a pharmaceutical design. In America I would say things are rather experimental and liberal (sometimes too liberal) and clients simply want to be different at any price and in anyway.

Because of the nature of this business, it is possible to work on an international scale nowadays that provides us not only limitless opportunities but equally challenging environments. The only way to survive successfully is not only learning regional & geographical definitions of design and the study of cultural impacts on it but also the originality of a concept conceived for an alien society.

13. Please describe the creativity and new media design environment in your city. Do you like it?
New Media community and environment both are relatively new here as anywhere in the world - all that just started 6/7 years ago. Somehow, as compare to other IT fields New Media never been as hot as others, despite the fact more than 30% New Media relevant job ads in the local IT market show a desperate need and demand but at a collective level the community could not be strengthened noticeably. The reason comes to mind (as I understand) is the absent of highly skilled and experienced personals at management level in this field although the scenario has changed within past one-an-half year but I think that still needs a year or two to become mature with the pace things are moving here.

14. What's your opinion about teamwork influence on your works?
I understand teamwork very well for its true meaning. I’ve worked as a performing and mime artist during my college days with several performing arts groups. That is inevitable not to get influenced in teamwork after all if it is going to be a team’s work. It guarantees less risks and very direct way to achieve objectives also helps keeping one on the track but at the end of the day all that depends on the professionalism of team members. If seen in design-&-designer’s context that is sometimes frustrating and not easy to accept as after all every designer is an artist and that is difficult to remove personal feelings from work after a certain stage.

15. Any suggestions to new media designers/creators today?
Would like to suggest new and fresh designers that everything is possible in this digital world within your individual capabilities and at levels. Inspiration is the first step towards realization of our own capabilities, individuality and originality. Learn from inspiration but don’t let it influence your work where possible because believing in being influential is better than influenced. Originality is your identity – explore your won self and find what’s hidden inside each of us that made us so unique from fingerprints to our voices.

16. Who are your favorite artists/designers/creators? What is it you like about them?
There are many designers out there whose work speaks for their design ingenious, creativity and originality but I am very much impressed with the work of ‘Brad Johnson (Second Story)’, ‘Bart Marable (Terra Incognita)’ and ‘Serge Danysevsky (Graph D'sign)’. The first two designers are well known and emulated figures for interactive design and feature story-telling.

The characteristic I find common in their works is the ability to freeze time with a very classical yet contemporary design style & approach. Brad's work has defined feature story design, new approaches in layout and content design. Where as Bart’s work stands for excellence in the field of interactive story telling and online infotainment design. Serge Danysevsky’s, a Russian designer – comparatively less known but his working style & taste makes him a much-respected figure to me. His work is very romantic, soft, indirect and personal.

17. Which computer platform and model do you use? Other hardware do you use - monitor, scanner, camera, graphics tablet?
I have a P4 2.4 GHz (256 RAM, 80 GB hard disk, 64Mb Radeon VGA card with CD R/W) running Win XP, LG Flatron 17” monitor, SurfCam, Sony Digital Handycam DCR-TRV230E with DV capture card, Creative Inspire 4.1 speakers, Acer Pirsa Scanner, Epson ColorStylus printer, cordless mouse and keyboard, and a small UPS for 15 min backup.

18. Which software packages do you use?
Usually work with a combination of Photoshop, Corel Draw, Dreamweaver, Flash/Director and Sound Forge. There are many others that I work with if required such as 3d Studio Max, Premier, Painter, and Poser etc.

FUNS File

Name:
Asif R Naqvi

Website:
www.asifrnaqvi.com

1. "FUNS" in your life?
Eating out, watching cartoons & movies, going out on long walks with my wife

2. Horoscope zone:
Aquarius

3. Hobbies:
I am an ex-postal-stamp collector but now all my focus is Design-for-interactive medium, my job/profession is my hobby now

4. Favorite Motto:
Work, Work & Work (that’s also because am a workaholic)

5. Favorite Food:
Vegetables, Chicken, Daal Chawal, Salads, Pizza and all kind of light stuff

6. Favorite Drinks:
Cane & Orange Juice and tea, coffee if you count in

7. Favorite Clothes:
Casual ware

8. Favorite Brand:
Not any particularly

9. Favorite Music / Type:
Orchestral, classical and jazz music, also techno and anything that goes with the mood other than mere dance/party music. Yanni is my favorite so as Frank Senatra and Junaid Jamshed.

10. Favorite Web site:
Many – love google anyway

11. Favorite Game:
Cricket, don’t play video games – last time I played ‘Need for Speed’ four years ago and that’s what I liked

12. Favorite Magazine:
How & Computer Arts

13. Any influences you most:
Very much influenced with the life and personality of Hazrat Ali (AS)