Meet Kushal Birari | Creative /Art Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kushal Birari and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kushal, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Getting paid to day dream – isn’t it the most fascinating thing

I grew up in an environment where either you’re an Engineer, Doctor, Lawyer or a failure.
But I was captivated by the idea of being an artist, although at that age I wasn’t aware of know-how about the field. For me it was intriguing how visuals could express so many emotions without saying any words or someone presenting it.
Even no one in my distant family was aware about how to enter and what to do after graduation.
If I had to it would be stepping in the unknown, and then I started my journey towards Engineering haha
I did attend one class and that was enough to realize – I won’t be happy doing this for the rest of my life.

So I started preparing for the entrance test for the art school. I used to draw around 500-600 sketches per day, as in those days I thought it was a do or die situation for me haha. For context – every year around a thousand students apply and only 80 are selected. And finally got into the art school (Sir J J Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai) where I fell in love with the power of communication through art – advertising. Learned the art of making ads through traditional ways – drawing human figures, typography – both headline body copy by hand. Which taught me to think and visualize without “Command Z”. After completing my graduation in Applied Art, I started working in Indian Advertising in both the major cities Mumbai and New Delhi – in agencies such as Wieden+Kennedy and BBH. As Indian advertising was heavy on craft I wanted to get more on the idea side and so I decided to study in Miami Ad School Europe. I studied in Hamburg Germany which is considered the most awarded school in the world. After that I started working as an Art Director in Jung von Matt Hamburg

I look for mentors. There was always a mentorship factor behind every move. Even my move to Hamburg, Germany was because of one of my mentor Niklas Frings-Rupp and the same when I decided to move to New York for 360i Dentsu it was because of Menno Kluin (now Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy New York, & Former CCO of 360i and Dentsu Creative USA)

Because of these mentors I got to learn a lot, and got to create some interesting work which also happen to win big in award shows. Over the past couple of years I have won several awards and recognitions including Cannes, The One Show, Clio, D&AD, Webby, Effie, Art Directors Club Global, Art Directors Club Germany to name a few.

Currently, I’m working at Mother New York.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Lessons I have learnt – I would say trying to be consistent helps me a lot. I feel it’s the most important habit and it applies to every aspect of life. It is what makes you more reliable, responsible and resourceful, people can trust you to do the job, if it’s coming up with creative ideas or delivering the final output. Also, being patient helped me in my journey. In the world of instant gratification being patient helps. Also, there are many things to learn from the industry, one of the most important lessons it has taught me is to keep pushing and never to settle. There is always a better way, so even on the days when you feel stuck believing in your own self/instinct that we will be able to figure out the solution is the best possible feeling.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Niklas Frings-Rupp, Menno Kluin (now Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy New York, & Former CCO of 360i and Dentsu Creative USA), my friend Sudi Waghmare and my parents who has been my constant support.

Website: https://kushalbirari.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kushalbirari/

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kushalbirari

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kushalbirari

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kushal.birari

Other: https://iwishididthat.tumblr.com/