Charles Rezandi, he came into the room with a good-spirited mood.

He introduced himself as an Art and Image Director at C+C & Co. but what set him apart from the others was when he mentioned that he

was also a lecturer at LASALLE college. He reminded me so much

of my previous lecturer back when I was studying in Temasek Polytechnic, and it almost felt nostalgic to hear him talk about his

work and students.

 

Starting off the talk, Charles showed us his various work, mostly based around photography and picture editing. When he mentioned ‘design brief’, I had a thousand-yard stare cross my face as the wars of my diploma days engulfed me in their memories. It was heartening to

hear Charles recounts on his clients briefs and ideation sessions where his team just could not bring forth any good ideas to the table, as I felt slightly warmed at the fact that the struggles to be a creative is

common regardless of experience. I straightened my seat when he mentioned how his team overcame their creativity block and laughed at the story of his team playing with water for one of their client’s brief.

 

Charles was no different than my lecturer back in diploma, both of them juggled between work and teaching that it made me wonder

why on earth would they subjugate themselves to extra responsibilities, but it became clear when Charles started talking about his student’s projects. His joy for his works was shared to his joy of teaching at his college.

 

He showed us his student’s works, ones where he supervised their final year projects and his pride was clear in his voice when he flipped through the many photos. Charles was as devoted to his work as he

was to his students, if him showing off his student’s works to us was anything to go by. Each anecdote he gave about his student’s design process was latent with a sense of pride and genuine content.

 

When it came to the end of his talk, Charles left us a small morsel of wisdom and that is to be open to different styles of design and trends. Visit exhibitions, buy magazines to read and analyze how the products are advertised and laid out. Imitate and evolve from the references

you have to create your own style and taste. Those advices were something I’ve heard multiple times before and it still rings truth because I surmised that nothing stays the same. Trends change as

time passes and it is important to keep up to stay relevant in this line

of work.

 

At the end, I asked him the same question as I did my previous

lecturer. “Why do you do both art directing and teaching? Isn’t it tiring?” He shrugged at me, smile still on his face. I didn’t get my answer and to be honest, I don’t think he had one either. He looked sleep-deprived as all Art Directors tend to be but it was clear throughout his talk that he just enjoyed doing both.