Ex-O&M hand V Sunil launches 'A'

September 15, 2003, was V Sunil's last day as creative director at O&M, Delhi. Though he keeps making short visits to the office to complete pending work, his focus of attention now is ‘A'.

‘A' is a creative hotshop situated in what is coming to be known as the artist's sanctum in Delhi - at Khirkee Village Extension, close to the Chirag Delhi flyover in the southern part of the capital city.

It was actually last year that Sunil stopped on his tracks "to give some serious thought to his future". He wanted to do his own thing, he was pretty much sure. So on September 15, 2003, he hung up his boots at O&M, the agency he joined exactly four years ago - on September 15, 1999 (something, he claims, he didn't realise until his secretary brought it to his notice on his last day).

‘A', Sunil says, would be more than an average agency. Besides giving creative services, his newly launched outfit will also offer design solutions. While he has a couple of clients to start with, Sunil is sure his goodwill will get him more clients as "…people are keen to work with me", he says. So far there are no plans of setting up offices in other cities. Interestingly, the façade of Sunil's office building will be used as "a canvas for artists". "My friend Suchitra has left her impressions on it, and every six months a different artist will give expression to his/her creativity there. The objective is to make that building an artist's paradise," says Sunil, who began his career as a finishing artist with Bangalore-based studio, Campaign Advertising, in 1991.

After a two-year stint at Campaign, Sunil joined Contract, Bangalore, as a finishing artist in 1993, where he also got some assignments on visualising campaigns. In another two years, Sunil moved to Delhi and did a year's stint at Tara Sinha (now McCann-Erickson), before joining Contract, Delhi. Four years on, Lowe beckoned him. "I was there for about seven to eight months before I went back to Contract. In fact, it was Contract that substantially contributed to my growth." Sunil stayed on for another three years. In 1999, he joined O&M.

"My friends wondered why I joined O&M, Delhi. O&M's Mumbai and Bangalore branches were doing some great creative work, but Delhi?" says Sunil. He doesn't regret his decision though.

"My brief, as given by Piyush Pandey, was to rock Delhi. I had a fantastic time at O&M. Till this year, in the creative cadre of O&M Worldwide, only O&M India was listed and not the individual branches. But now both O&M, Mumbai, and Delhi are listed under O&M India. That is great news indeed," remarks Sunil.

In his first year at O&M, Delhi, the branch won three One Show nominations. While the year 2001 was not so great, 2003 brought some more good news. "We won a Gold at Cannes for the ‘blank magazine' mailer done for business magazine Businessworld and out of 10 Finalist Nominations for One Show from India, seven were from O&M, Delhi."

For now, ‘A' is what Sunil's heart is set on. The name ‘A' does sound unusual, but Sunil thinks it is "deadly". "‘A' is the first letter of the English alphabet and ‘A' also stands for ‘art', ‘architecture' … all the creative things…," he says quite emphatically. © 2003 agencyfaqs!