KOCHI: In the battle of ballots, public campaigning plays a huge role in attracting voters’ attention. But on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, designing calls the shots, in making posters. And if it has to be in the vernacular language, things get really tough.
So, is there a solution? Yes, say the founders of Burfy. And if the numbers are to be believed, in the last local body elections, more than one lakh poll posters were made using the tools provided in the Burfy app. The same trend is being seen in the assembly elections.
Although the Burfy app was developed to meet the design needs of small businesses and creators, it gained traction when it helped many in designing posters for local body candidates. “It was a marketing of sorts for us,” said Asher Ali, co-founder and chief business officer (CBO) of the startup.
“As you can see, not everyone is an expert when it comes to design. If we consider Kerala’s population, it can be seen that 90% of them don’t have any design experience or expertise. Another major handicap was the fact that the design tools available in the market were not built with their language, culture, and context in mind,” he added.
So, Asher, Imthiyas Peruvan, Suresh K, and Mohammed Mukhthar decided to bridge this gap. As Asher put it, Burfy is not just a tool.
“It is something that empowers anyone, regardless of background or language, to create beautiful and professional content in minutes,” he said.
Asher pointed out that the app’s success was evident during the local body polls.
“In the LSG polls, more than the party machinery, individuals associated with the candidates are much more involved in the campaigning activities. Here, the friends and relatives of candidates design posters themselves. This is where Burfy played a big role. The Malayalam language fonts, party symbols, and other tools provided in the app made it very easy for people to use to design posters. The end result was aunts, wives, uncles, nephews, nieces, sisters, brothers and friends turning designers, making posters for a low cost and posting them on social media platforms. The posters are printed too,” he added.
Recalling an interesting incident, he said, “A traffic police officer, while on duty, was contacted by his friend, who was contesting the LSG polls, to help make a poster. The officer downloaded our app and designed a poster in a jiffy.”
Asher highlighted how, with the advent of AI, manual poster making might fast become obsolete. “But Burfy will help these people become content creators with the help of its design tools. Burfy is the story of every creator finally having a design tool that speaks their language,” he added.