MCM Design
Design solutions from a geeza

about + cv jay/jai lathigra

East London Geeza and a Multi-disciplinary creative with over 20 years of experience. Specializing in design and creative direction as well as branding and collateral for events/experiential design. Team leader and player, mentor and hands on when needed. My passion is typography, letter forms, I think it’s one of the top foundations of a design.

“Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form.”
Robert Bringhurst

Design needs space to breathe, visual ventilation, finding the balance between design elements and message, each should have equal weight. One shouldn’t overcrowd the other. Collaboration is also a key in design, we’re visual communicators and communication doesn’t exist in a vacuum, engagement with your team and the world around us is essential.

My passion for design infuses itself in every aspect of my life—from my creative direction, design, and my personal work in woodworking and furniture design. My experience includes, art directing programs from inception to execution and working across the all mediums. My goal is alway originality and ensuring every project, no matter the scope aligns seamlessly with a brand’s vision and purpose.

My goal when designing is to adhere to a quote by Dieter Rams ”Good Design is Long Lasting” as much as I can given the brief. The designer I admire and look up to the most is Josef Müller-Brockmann. His work in my opinion is timeless, simple executions that look effortless.

 

man called mate

My passion for design infuses every aspect of my life—from my meticulous attention to detail in graphic design to my personal work in furniture design. My areas of expertise include: art-directing programs from inception to execution, branding, collateral, animation, event and signage design. Working across the all mediums, print, digital and event marketing and B2B, B2C, blue-chip to small businesses.

Senior Art Director/Creative Lead
The Guardian US. December 2021-Present

Marketing Solutions department, collaborating on a variety of brands for Guardian Labs, Branded Content.

- Collaborate with my Marketing team to generate ideas for pitches and proposals.
- Executing multiple projects from concept, ideation through to completion, wire framing from low to high fidelity, handing off to developer. Working with illustrators, photographers and video production.
- Presenting and communicating with clients and internal teams regarding creative ideas/concepts/solutions.
- Developing creative concepts in line with creative briefs and managing budgets.
- Resourcing and art directing external talents for enhanced creative executions.
- Ensuring quality meet standards for hand-off to clients, developers, printers, or for final publication.

Art/Creative Director
Clear Channel Outdoor: Corporate Marketing Solutions

February 2014-November 2021: Leading a team of 2-3 designers. Working with clients, both local and national, to develop out-of-home campaigns to best leverage their products, services or current marketing campaign to optimise OOH ( Out-of-Home ) to it’s fullest. This included our products, such as, Radar and Programmatic and engagement with social media capabilities with and via our digital boards. Ensuring brand consistency throughout our markets and public facing mediums and events we sponsor and/or are a part of. In addition, developing and building landing pages for our numerous capabilities and products to showcase the power of OOH. In Addition to my day-to-day role, I worked on and designed the branding for our products, i.e. Clear Channel Outdoor RADAR, which was then adapted and used for our U.K. market.

Designer/Art Director: Freelance

RPI Studios: Logo/branding and brochure design.
Rolling Stone Magazine: Marketing Creative Department
People and People en Español: Marketing, promotional and event collateral design.
Hearst Magazines: Worked across the board on all their brands, marketing and event collateral.
Reader's Digest: The Family Handy and Taste of Home: marketing, sales materials and event collateral.
People en Español: Worked on event collateral for Festival People en Español 2012 (digital, print and signage) and marketing materials.

Art Director
Men’s Health and Women’s Health  
Sales and Marketing

Lead a team of three designers. Worked closely with the project managers, sales reps and advertisers to effectively construct and implement creative solutions combining both brand messages. Projects/campaigns implemented in various media: print, digital, custom activation's with readers. Including advertorials, high-impact units, photo shoots, micro sites and digital ad units. Created marketing collateral for sales rep deployment, including sell sheets and custom sales material.

PROJECTS OF NOTE: Men’s Health Urbanathlon: Signature Race
• Complete branding of program and race series.
• Comprehensive brand integration of Gatorade as the official race sponsor.
After a $2.5 million ad buy, with Men's Health and Women's Health. Elements included: YouTube channel, exclusive race app, rich media units, custom video workouts, video shoots of three race participants for official Urbanathlon YouTube webisodes. Custom advertorials featuring new Gatorade G Series FIT product range.

30 Days of Lacoste
• Online fashion calendar showcasing 15 items of Lacoste clothing to create 30 looks for a month long promotion.
• Comprehensive promotion, including sweepstakes, digital ad units and email blasts. Working with fashion editor to select outfits and create looks for photo shoot.

Education
Graphic Information Design  2:1 (B.A., Honors)  | University of Westminster (London, UK)
Foundation in Art & Design | Newham Community College (London, UK)

Skills
A hardworking creative with an inquisitive mindset. Creative Direction. Adobe Creative Suite, Figma. UX/UI Design.

Interests:
Woodworking, I design and build custom furniture—coffee and side tables, benches and mirror frames. I build these unique pieces primarily using hand tools: chisels, hand planes and Japanese handsaws, among other tools. An avid runner, four half marathons to date, two tough mudders and five Men's Health Urbanathlons.

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