Experience

• Artist & Brand Direction at AAR - Aashiq Al Rasul

  Birmingham, United Kingdom

  March 2015 - Present

  As Brand Director and Art worker for the music band AAR I have been closely working alongside the Creative Director to help with creating a stronger and sharper look for the band and connecting them with the audience. My responsibilities have included updating the look and feel for the band's logo, promotional materials for events and concerts and the band costumes so that it matches with its music styles it produces. The current on-going aim is creating an identity that combines the music with the band members for the audience to recognize. The band members in the past have not had strong imagery of themselves being used on their albums or promotional material and has resulted in weak identity and recognition in comparison to competitors in the same market. The aim alongside the Creative Director is to make the band and company have a strong identity with its various music and projects and to bring it all together to one strong brand that the audience can recognize the group even without the music. The look and feel had to be considered after thorough research into the international community of fans, the music genres covered by the band, competing bands and artists in the same market and key marketing strategies to increase sales and exposure for the band in order to pave a path to more success.
  
  Redesigning and re-branding is currently being done for the band’s costumes, website and social media pages, marketing techniques and materials to optimize audience interaction, graphical materials needed for album covers and concerts and other on-going improvements based on audience and market research.
  

• Concept Artist & Illustrator at mansarali.art.studios

  Birmingham, United Kingdom

  April 2004 - Present

  Conceptualizing and designing characters, environment, vehicles and comic book art for multiple clients on various project sizes varying in strict deadlines, some of these include character concepts completed through DeviantART and many concepts done for IC Entertainment. I have worked with clients closely from beginning to end to reach final desired design and concept; this includes sweats and joggers developed for high street brand Max Limited 180. Commissions are taken to final illustrations or finished concepts. In addition my digital illustrations have been published and featured in:

  Ballistic Publishing Exposé 9
  
  Ballistic Publishing Exposé 10
  
  Imagine FX - Issue 94
  
  CGSociety Featured Portfolios
  
  2DTUTS - Interview & Feature

• Senior Menswear Designer at Dex Jeans Ltd

  Birmingham, United Kingdom

  August 2009 - November 2014

  Responsible for creating innovative and exciting new designs through each new season working across the menswear, boys and baby range, these include hoodies, sweats, tees, jackets, denim, polos, knitwear, tricot, fur-sweats, onesies and complete label and graphic elements required for all products. The designs are aimed for the competitive high street market for brands Daniel Lei, New York Legends and Centino. Further duties include researching and developing new ranges to compliment and drive forward the existing products based on current and future trends being highlighted throughout major fashion industry.
  
  I have extensive knowledge of Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator. I am experienced in creating photo-realistic concepts of CAD designs using freehand illustration with Photoshop & Intuos 4 tablet whilst reinforcing concepts creating tech packs in Illustrator with all technical details for sampling. I have strong experience in liaising with suppliers from Bangladesh, Pakistan and China to take concepts from design stage to shipment sample stage. Other software experience includes, Adobe InDesign, Quark Express, Dreamweaver, CorelDraw, Nitro PDF Creator Professional and Microsoft Office. Other key responsibilities are as below:

  i) Interpreting seasonal key trends and colours and producing mood boards, trend boards and colour palettes to help inspire designs

  ii) Research driven shopping and keeping up-to-date on market trends

  iii) Liaising with suppliers to take designs from concept to final shipment samples and maximizing product design with lowest cost

  iv) Overseas travel taken for factory visits and research trips for fashion shows for inspirational buying and future thinking

  v) Working closely with the Creative Management & Directors to focus on key ideas and taking them to final shipment