CCC Diaries

We love quantifying everything, defining it in numbers. But if we put CCC in numbers, what would it be?

This course has always been an enigma, and every single experience is different. There is only one thing that we know for certain though, CCC is exactly what you make and want it to be.

"Don't limit your challenges, challenge your limits." - Jerry Dunn

For this week of Friday Fuel we have someone who rightly believes in taking up new challenges and conquering her way to glory.

Payal is an engineer turned copywriter turned strategist trying to do impactful work that challenges both her right and left brain.

After graduating from the 26th batch of MICA's CCC program, she began her career in advertising by writing for brands like Mercedes-Benz & Pizza Hut at Creativeland Asia. She then made a pivot into strategy and worked for brands like KFC, Amazon, Intel & GSK at Blink Digital in Mumbai. She just completed her Master's in Brand Strategy at the VCU Brandcenter and is currently working as a strategist at SYLVAIN, a brand innovation & design consultancy in NYC working on brands like CHANEL and Spotify. Payal approaches her work through the lens of analytical and creative thinking while also bringing a diverse perspective to everything she does.

We are pumped up to welcome her and take back lots of learnings from her experiences.

David Ogilvy once said that a good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself. But what is advertising?

Here, we introduce our very own dictionary of advertising and marketing concepts with a CCC twist to it! Today we look at the words: advertising, brand tribe and campaign.

Last but not the least, presenting our next - Sanket Audhi, Creative Director, Dentsu Webchutney. Being a part of CCC community himself, he told us about the importance of this journey and the steps we all must take to make it a memorable one. He told us to obsess over every artist, photographer, etc, and sit through the credit section of a film. He gave us a lot of fun 'commercial breaks' in between and left us with advice to 'Reflect. Unlearn. Create'.

Presenting our next - Dhwani Shah. One quality which stood out from the art journals she shared with us was patience. She told how journalling is not about doodling but expressing yourself on a paper. She ended by making a statement- 'The area from where you create and judge are two different spaces. They can't work together.'

Here's presenting our next - writer, actor, and director, Dhruv Sehgal. He gave us a deep insight into writing for the web. He told us about the importance of slowing down, observing things around, and reflecting them in our work. He told us about all the little things that will help us to explore the world.

After CCC, Shiv Verma went on to pursue his passion in filmmaking by completing his Master's degree in film and video communication from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He is the founder and director of Mezzanine Media Delhi, which is a boutique film company created to explore storytelling through the medium of cinema. Let's look at what Shiv has to say about his CCC days:

We were fortunate to have Shefali Pandey and Preeti Das, co-founder- Mahila Manch as our . They told us how stand up gives power to challenge the status quo by using humor as a means to initiate uncomfortable conversations.

Kalamandalam Bindhulekha

Hailing from the southernmost state of Kerala, Kalamandalam Bindulekha is an Indian Mural painter and a Bharatnatyam dancer. Bindulekha is the first woman temple mural painter who holds a degree in both Bharatanatyam and Mural painting from the much-acclaimed Kerala Kalamandalam.

Her artwork mainly consists of blending traditional mural paintings with contemporary art which give them a very 21st Century feel. One aspect that has stood out is her use of colour blue, considered unusual in temple murals.

Having started her exhibition shows in 2004, at the Kerala Laklithkala Akademi Art Gallery, Bindulkeha's major work include Manoyanam - The Voyage of Dream, Tradition and Beyond and the much-famed mural painting of three forms of Devi - Saraswati (in shades of white), Bhadrakali (in shades of dark blue) and Mahalakshmi (in shades of red).

We were blown to witness how typography creates an impact in our lives with our - Shiva Nallaperumal, co-founder- November. He left a seed of thought by making a very powerful statement-" I don't create fonts, I create tools".

Lines, shapes, black and white, this is what represents our speaker's style. We had a great opportunity to interact with our - Aniruddh Mehta, founder- Studio Bigfat. He talked about compartmentalising work and finding a sweet spot by balancing money, value and happiness.