{"id":2960,"date":"2021-10-30T15:49:53","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T10:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlykutts.com\/?p=2960"},"modified":"2021-10-30T16:01:10","modified_gmt":"2021-10-30T10:31:10","slug":"a-sirkar-jewellers-the-future-of-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlykutts.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/30\/a-sirkar-jewellers-the-future-of-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden Nuggets: A Sirkar Jewellers – The Future of Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This was the first freelance campaign that I ever worked on. My school friend, Sanjoy Chatterjee, had just returned from Parson\u2019s School of Design, New York, where he had studied fine arts and decided to become a professional photographer. I myself had returned not so long before from my MBA at McGill University, Montreal, and decided to \u2018turn creative\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sanjoy was bursting with new ideas on photography and when Chiradeep Sirkar of A. Sirkar Jewellers asked him to create advertising for him, he had a canvas on which to demonstrate his talent. He approached me to work with him as the copywriter on the campaign. And I brought on board my colleague Anil Bathwal as the art director. Anil too had done his higher studies in the US\u2014he was an art major from Lafayette College. Our North American education provided a common factor to bond over. It also gave us a perspective that was a little different from what our industry colleagues had at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being inexperienced, we were unencumbered by strategic imperatives. We were ignorant of the dos and don\u2019ts of what was considered the \u2018correct\u2019 approach to photography, art direction and copy. All we knew was that we needed to stand out in the crowd of jewellery advertising in Kolkata. We had to help A. Sirkar be like a lighthouse shining a light over the sea of sameness that was gold and jewellery advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think our naivete and desire to experiment helped us achieve this goal. I remember Sanjoy showing me the results of his photographic experiments. These were polaroid transfers on archival paper of various photos he had taken. They had a poetic quality to them\u2014which inspired me to write \u2018brand poetry\u2019 for the campaign. Anil, the art director, was also full of new ideas. He redesigned the logo for A. Sirkar. And helped bring together the pictures and words that Sanjoy and I created in layouts that, once again, refused to follow rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chiradeep, the client, was so open to new ideas that we did not have to \u2018sell\u2019 our campaign to him. Thanks to him, our ads \u2018went through\u2019 without a single change. And they created a bit of a stir in the Kolkata advertising market. People wrote letters of appreciation to the client. And our work got written about in the press\u2014generating curiosity about who the three young iconoclasts behind the ads were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n