Man’s reach exceeds his imagination!

Sitting here on this wooden chair, my feet turning cold slowly, my ears feeding on the insipid rhythms I keep repeating on my playlist, my mind travels back a year, and I realise how much I have grown as a designer and as a person at IMG.

Here begins the journey at IMG as a designer from the eyes of a CoVID batch sophomore.

▶ Start Game

As soon as I got accepted at IITR, I dug up Watch Out’s Freshers guide from the internet. I was far too curious to wait for interactions to begin, and I learned about the various campus groups from the guide. I had always been a tech enthusiast, and I had heard about UI/UX design from my NID friends. I was also keen on coding, but since I am good at art, I thought I had a better chance at design than development (I tried them both, nonetheless).

Soon after our ETEs, most of the campus groups released their recruitment assignments, and the best part was that all the problem statements were really intriguing! I was not familiar with the apps used for design, so I explored a lot and came up with the best possible solution I could deliver. After a week of nervous nail-biting, I got a call of relief into the interview rounds by the IMG seniors. The interviewers made me very comfortable to speak my shyness away, and the day ended warmly.

⬆ Level Up

The time was not the best for me because I was soon held captive by the raging virus. I made it to the team nonetheless! We were invited to our first intro session on google meet, where we got to know each other and our seniors.

Soon enough, we began to have lectures on various topics such as git, MySQL, vim, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Java, Python, PHP, Design tools and Design methodologies. These were followed by assignments that aided to strengthen our command on each of the topics. Both Designers and Developers were supposed to attempt these to get familiar with each other’s work basics.

The team’s Project Associates (or the sophomores) guided us through the assignments, and the Project Leaders (the juniors) checked them for us and gave us iterations for improvements. Some of the assignments passed in one go, while others took more time, though the learning and the patience were worth it! Moreover, we made friends across the years and memories beyond comparison in this process!

With the hard work came the fun too! We had online chapos, showcased our talents, laughed with the team and shared our thoughts on the simplest of things.

❤ Upgrades

When all hope was lost, the campus return email shone like the brightest star in the bleak sky. After spending 2 years continuously at home, I finally had the chance to visit the place of my dreams: the IITR campus!

When I reached under the luscious canopies of the campus streets, my already tired feet ignited with energy to explore. With google maps in hand, I went to the IMG lab and saw it sparkle in the golden daylight sifting through the trees as it fell on the sleeping machines.

After (finally) completing our assignments, we finally got our hands-on projects that influenced the entire IITR junta! These projects are tracked on GitHub and reviewed by the team seniors.

✔ Inventory

Being at IMG taught me many things about design and about myself. I overcame my dread of deadlines due to GBMs (General Body Meetings), held fortnightly to catch up on ongoing projects and set self-made deadlines and goals. I also learnt that art and design need not necessarily go hand in hand, that design isn’t just about the tools and the skills but more about planning ahead: The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.

As a designer, I started noticing the subtle details, thoughts, and efforts put into the things around me that had previously escaped my attention. Design amalgamates the functionality of a product with a creative appearance, which morphs the product’s value to a new level. I learnt that there are many more cords, other than the general design principles, that plugin when a product is thought upon. Design is so enormous and vibrant that the horizon is intangible.

↩ Replay?

And this brings us to the part where you come into the picture. If you are zealous to learn and have a thirst for technical knowledge, you can exceed your imagination and be part of the team!

Make sure to attend the intro talk series and get familiar with the discussed topics. You can ping us at our Discord channel or Facebook if you feel stuck in a problem. But most importantly: Do your best & leave the rest!😇