Sign up for afaqs! Newsletters
Arun Kumar joins Rediffusion DY&R, Bangalore, as associate creative director
In his 16-year career, Kumar has worked on the art side of creative for MAA Bozell, Percept H and Leo Burnett. His last stint was as associate creative director, Leo Burnett, Colombo
Arun Kumar, associate creative director, Leo Burnett, Colombo, has decided that it is time to come back to his roots. He has returned to India after having spent a year in Sri Lanka and has joined Rediffusion DY&R, Bangalore, as associate creative director.
The Kerala born adman remarks, “The reason I went to Colombo was because I wanted some time away for myself. But after being out of India for a year, I realised that the action was back home. Also, most of my colleagues are in India, so it was time to get back. The guys at Rediff share the same passion for improving brands as me.”
At Rediffusion DY&R, Kumar will be in charge of brands such as ING Vysya, Airtel and ETA, the real estate brand.
Kumar started out as a lawyer in 1994, but soon decided that that profession was not for him. He quit his practice in six months and did short stints in event management. He first forayed into advertising as a copywriter with Chrysalil, a Kerala based ad agency. After spending two years there, he joined TV Narayan’s design outfit, Survival By Design, where he spent 18 months.
Reminiscing about a memorable project that he pioneered during his stint there, Kumar says, “I was a part of the team that was supposed to redesign the entire layout for ‘Sunday Mid-Day’. We changed the layout and made it more readable, cropped the pictures and changed the colour palette of the paper as well as the fonts used for the headlines and sub-heads. The toughest part was to convince the client that the changes were extremely necessary for the paper.”
Later, Kumar moved to MAA Bozell, where he became senior art director. In 1999, with the web revolution, he joined Planet Asia, the e-technology offshoring focused solutions and services company, as senior web designer. At Planet Asia, he pioneered two website projects, including HLL’s corporate website and bangaloreit.com.
In 2001, when he decided to move back into advertising, he joined Percept H as associate creative director, where he worked on Airtel Magic. A year later, Kumar started his own ad agency, Stirred Creative, but he is no longer an active partner there. His last stint was at Leo Burnett, Colombo.
© 2006 agencyfaqs!