Thursday, May 26, 2011

Business Communication = a creatively charged work life

Today when the globe has become so much networked and tiny, there is a greater need to reach out to people/associates who are from different walks of life in a way that is understood by their respective cultural languages.

Copyright © 2011 rembrandz.com
At least 10 years before I stepped into business school I was intrigued by business communication and getting into it was like a given when I was an executive at our family business. Hence my first classes in the same was given by one of my mentors who is a business communication, marketing and entrepreneurial advocate and a professor at a university who also happens to be my brother. It is with gratitude to him that I look back and see that my creative writing may have stemmed from the grounding since those early days.

So, years later when I sat for my formal graduate studies, I had enough time to make my communication as creative as possible, by adding-on illustrations, personalized cards/e-cards or even an animation if it meant keeping a lasting impression with my associates.

This has simply been the reason why I work till date, with some of my oldest colleagues, clients and employers.

Following are a few tools I can suggest to help maintain a business relationship.
1. Maintaining 'Press Releases' to keep your audience up-to-date with your activities and top achievements.
2. Corporate E-cards or Greeting Cards: A need to seize an opportunity of an occasion to pass on a good wish (not too annoyingly frequent). Just enough to remind them that you are available and open for business.
3. If not for a fancy flier/card just drop in a corporate howdy and pass on your current portfolio to show of your updated services.

Copyright © 2011 Remy Francis

4. Choose perhaps the occasion of a New Year? to send your associates some merchandize of your services and products, something they could use all-year round to remember you, also to indicate to them of your renewed interest.
5. Finally, perhaps send them a special invite to an event which has your presence.

The above mentioned are not only effective tools, but also a reflections of a goodwill you radiate to show that you are always client-oriented, on call and ready to serve.

That's all for now! Wish you Happy communicating!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Business Studies + an Art Passion = a Corporate Creative

Copyright © 2011 Remy Francis
Being an artist at heart and having a traditional academic background gave me a good balance between my left and right brain passions and helped me much in my wild adventurous career ride.

Thanks to my university curriculum and extra-curricular activities, with my extensive research work over the years, today I work with flexibility. Being able to work in different departments at once providing my core competencies.

With this said, it is my pleasure to invite you to see projects I enjoyed doing because it is a profession from my extended hobby and way-of-life.

1. Web Back in 2006, I had a golden opportunity to work with an all IT group in keybank USA as a UI and front-end programmer, designing the web by hard-coding using HTML, CSS, Javascript and being able to create an intranet flash-based site for our 10-person group from different nationalities which I was not new to with my years of UAE experience. It was the most fulfilling job I did during my tenure in USA. Hence more of my friendship between my left and right brain came into play there. Being the only UI design and front-end programmer in the group was also quite an enriching experience.

Below I display some of my web screen shots, of course starting with my own HTML5 based website:

Copyright © 2011 Remy Francis




2. Illustrative articles/writing Having got my first article published back in 1999 in a Canadian magazine, I have been writing on and off enjoying it as a passion and using it in every job I have been in. I am currently pleased to get back into regular writing since April 2010.
My main feature in writing is complimenting it with my sketches to put across my messages.


Copyright © 2011 Remy Francis

2. Illustrations/Newsletter/Book Design This passions stems from the early 90s when I got my illustrations published on a newsletter where my sketches were to pass on some corporate messages.



Copyright © 2010 Remy Francis

3. Branding & Identity

Brochures and Print collateral:


Internal Branding:






4. Concept for Ads/storyboard
Copyright © 2011 Remy Francis

5. Museum installations/illustration/Posters
Copyright © 2011 Remy Francis



6. ISO 9000 training (management cartoons) I have iPhoned below a couple of the sketches I created long time ago during my ISO 9000 thesis, done for an ISO expert to aid his corporate training slides (those days it was the OHPs).
Copyright © 2000 Remy Francis

Copyright © 2000 Remy Francis

7. Audiovisuals


8. Broadcast Design Animator was the first job after my business studies and I was freshly able to put 2 and 2 together and form a lasting grounding.
Copyright © 2010 Remy Francis


9. Events - Creative /Exhibition Stands





10.Political Cartoons Business school introduced me to Political Economy and that helped me grow my interests in global current affairs and my thoughts are let out mostly through such cartoons

Copyright © 2010 Remy Francis

Copyright © 2009 Remy Francis