A Designer's Tale

My former colleagues at FASTLANE Magazine were kind enough to ask me for a write up about my experience at FASTLANE, as I paved ground for the magazine, designing the first four issues. The 7th issue is out. I haven't received a copy as of yet and am unsure about any changes they may have made. However, here's the article I originally sent in. 

photo: Junaid Deep

A DESIGNER’S TALE.
By Jaman Mehedi Adnan

A.R. Rahman once stated in an interview that he takes almost no interest in sports. That may just explain his extravagantly lousy performance at the ICC T20 opening.  I’m not comparing myself to the great musician, but as an artist and designer I have also been negligent towards the world of stadiums and automobiles. So designing and initially setting some ground for Bangladesh’s first English automotive magazine was quite a daunting challenge. In fact, if you’re reading this article, I would like to let you know that I have no intention of talking about my experience with cars – although there is that one time I almost learned how to drive. Anyways, I want to go over humble beginnings and a few statements about collaboration and design.

The FASTLANE logo was custom tailored by me, and to this day it gets criticized for not being like other magazine logos out there. However, when I first made it I had no intention of changing and compromising my “art”. You see, design takes practice, understanding, and passion, and as a designer in Bangladesh I know for a fact that most of us working in this sector are self-disciplined. Therefore, we lack both practice and understanding. What we do have is the passion. So, when know-it-alls nudge me about changing my work, I’m completely unwilling to do anything about it, because even two-year-olds know how to use Photoshop nowadays. However, not knowing much about cars, and going through a bunch of car magazines for referencing I was in a rut! Most foreign car magazines are inundated with tacky, flashy graphics – providing images of half nude models as the main attraction.

Eventually, I was able to find a few good references. Yet, when the first magazine came out, I was highly disappointed with my work, and the magazine itself was scrawny and felt lighter than tissue (due to a miscommunication with the press). More importantly, my ego collapsed at seeing my flaws. So when it came time to design the second issue, I did more research and opened up to suggestions from my colleagues.

Basically, almost every creative idea is one that is derived from reference, rather than being something completely innovative - be it in Bangladesh or the United States of America. Since most of us in the country are slow to catch onto trends, afraid to take risks, and highly influenced by visuals from other countries, we don’t usually come up with bold ideas. But as a marketing student, I had to learn how to collaborate and take in good ideas, and gradually things worked out for the better. I ended up designing 4 magazines before I had to leave the company in order to focus on education. And FASTLANE hasn’t stopped yet.

The point I want to make is letting go a little ego, which comes from being passionate, and collaborating with others will usually enhance one’s work. With collaboration, I learned how to work with my colleagues towards a common goal, without having to completely compromise. And although referencing and copying has a huge role in determining design, it’s important to step out of what we consider to be the norm sometimes. I’m pretty sure that a lot of foreign car magazines won’t see the sleek and simplified designs brought to the table by FASTLANE Magazine. Many people may complain that the designs are way too minimal, but we always aimed towards a magazine that would look great not only to the “younger us”, but also the “older us”. Time to time, we also tried to bring in different elements that were funky or cool, not swaying too much from our simplified approach. Not being able to try something new is a bad habit. The Japanese are highly westernized, and yet, they continue to churn out new ideas that were only inspired by the west, but adapted so slyly into their culture. It’s important for us in Bangladesh to do the same. We have to find out own identity.

I really enjoyed my time at FASTLANE, with major credits going out to the good people who work there. I hope that one day the magazine will redefine other magazines in Bangladesh, and keep growing not only in popularity, but in thickness as well.