I completed my MBA and was requested to join the same college as a lecturer by my HOD. But, my career lasted all of 2 months, as I had to move to London, after my wedding. The fact that I was not too career oriented helped to accept that!
I had a chance to view some beautiful scrapbook pages in google. I loved the designs and the dreamy quality to them, and wanted to learn the art. But, this dream was elusive as I was not sure where to start. Just had a information that Digital Scrapbooking is an art of creating memories using purchased illustrations. It might be confused with photoshopping by many. But, digital scrapbooking is much more than that. It helps create memories.
Soon, after that my daughter was born, and I wanted to create memories for her. This gave me determination to start learning! In a nutshell, my daughter is the reason for where I am now.
In the beginning, I couldn’t make head or tail of the information available, to form a solid idea. But, I persevered and soon found a scrapbooking website. Most of the scrapbookers there were grandparents, creating memories for their grandkids. That is where I struck gold as I found a lot of information and help. Learning is so much fun if you have a buddy. In Facebook, I found a sweet woman from Calcutta (who remains my friend tilll date, though we haven’t met!!) who was keen to learn too! So, we both posted questions in the scrapbooker’s forum, and practiced the techniques. As we were 2, we had a critic to refine our work. So, each technique was practiced for weeks diligently and we went for the next. Faced a lot of heartbreaks of losing work due to software glitches but we never gave up. I even joined the creative teams of scrapbook illustration designers. After 2 solid years of practice, I created beautiful albums for my daughter. All 2 years of practice was possible only as my daughter posed as per my design requirements!
Then we relocated to India, and my daughter was past the stage of posing for photos and I was not scrapbooking that regularly. Then, one of my well-wishers had a look at my daughter’s albums and asked me to design albums for 2 of her friends, for gifting! That was the start. I created those albums and got good reviews. One of the friend who got the album as a gift, gave me an order to design an album for their family friend. As I was not sure how to market, I was not too keen to convert it into a business.
Then one fine day, the idea for a personalised ABC book struck. Till this day, I don’t know which gave me that idea. I had a thought, if a child is taught alpha words with his/her photos, learning would be fun. I advertised this in a FB group. One person trusted me and ordered it. I did my best and the first ABC book was a great success. The person who ordered, added me to a woman’s group in FB. There were many posts by inspiring women and one story (post) touched me so much! I want to surprise the OP and picked a photo of her daughter from her profile and designed a fairy page! I posted it in the group too and from then on, got a regular influx of requests. I was not charging initially as my intention was to bring happiness. Started charging to reduce the number of requests. I worked 100+ designs for people in the group.
Then, with encouragement from friends and well-wishers, started my Facebook page The Story Magician I decided to stick to the genre I love- Fantasy!
My design depends on the photo in hand. They speak to me! of course, you cannot hear it. I do as I am a magician of sorts! When I see a photo, an idea strikes me within a few minutes the art of converting that idea into a design needs careful thinking. My idea is that the photo should gel with the page and not look like it is stuck on. As natural as possible is the key! A person once told me that my pages have life. That is the best compliment I cherish till date.
My work requires lots of creativity, time and effort. I purchase beautiful illustrations from time to time, and can convert most fantasy ideas into posters. All illustrations I use are 300dpi. So perfect print quality. As this is my passion, rather than just a business, there is no compromise. I cannot bear even tiny flaws in the design. I have got a very good response and reviews. The best part is I remain in good rapport with every person I designed for till date, and have done a lot of repeat orders for them. I always hand in my designs as softcopies. They will be sent as .jpg files. Logistics prevent me from taking up printing. But, online sites like vistaprint.in have affordable photobooks in various sizes. Posters can be printed or blown up in any studio of choice.
I do Fantasy posters, Birthday invites and Banners, Personalised Memory, ABC, Rhymes and Story books.
— Priya Kumar —