Designing was always a passion for Puthupally native Alan V Subhash. He was so good at it that his friends always dumped the duty of making flexes and banners for college programmes on him. Hours spent with professional graphic designers paid off as posters Alan designed on his phone turned popular during the recently-concluded Kerala local body polls.
Mental stress due to unemployment, pay cuts and mundaneness - life amidst the pandemic has been tough for most. Lack of recreational options and social life adds to the problems as people are restricted within the four walls of the house.
But, a few youngsters in Kerala played to their strengths, beat boredom and earned some money in the bargain too.
The COVID protocols imposed in the state ahead of the civic body elections forced political parties to strengthen their cyber presence and alternate campaign methods. Seizing the opportunity, amateurs like Alan offered their service to the to rival fronts for reasonable remunerations.
Alan, who hasn't learnt designing professionally, started by making posters for social media use. He only charged Rs 50 per poster until his friends asked him to double his rate. This led to him investing further time and effort. Once he posted samples of his works on Facebook, orders started to pour in.
"A lot of party supporters working abroad were desperate to help in the poll efforts. Since they couldn't work on the ground, they led the social media campaigns and most of them were willing to pay the price you ask provided the output is good. Some of them kept me working until 3am to 4am in the morning," said the 22-year-old, who has done no less than 100 posters for candidates across party lines. Later, he also started making Profile frames for parties and candidates at a rate of Rs 200.
He combined four mobile apps -- Picsart, Troll Malayalam Editor, InShort and Snapseed -- to make his designs. "Troll Malayalam Editor has got good fonts. The text is made there and exported to PicsArt as a PNG file where the remaining work is done," the History graduate explained.
Unlike Alan, Archana C learnt Adobe Photoshop as part of her MCJ curriculum some years ago. The last time she used the software was during the 2016 assembly polls when she was part of LDF's official social media team. But designing becomes more challenging once you make it your trade, she observed. While it took her some time to get going, there were no issues once the "old touch" was back, the Masters in Performing Arts student said.
The Kannur native has made over 180 designs for both flex printing and social media use.
"'Creative designs' are what people want from amateurs. They expect us to think out of the box but the idea of creativity differs from person to person. It takes me close to two hours to finish one poster and I had to turn down many offers due to lack of time," said Archana, who designed posters for candidates across Malappuram, Palakkad and Kozhikode.
She used to create four or five posters a day and charged between Rs 100-120 depending on the demand. Once a template is confirmed as 'viral', it can be used for candidates from different districts, she said revealing her trade secret.
While Alan and Archana worked from home, Malappuram native Rahul went out with his camera shooting promo videos for candidates. The Folklore postgraduate's candid pics became popular among candidates so much so that several of them wanted him to be in charge of their posters.
"There is no escape from cliched themes. Those with children holding flags and candidates interacting with senior citizens always sell. You can try and tweak them a little," Rahul said.
"Some people would send a poster they like and ask to replicate its mood while candid clicks work better for some others who are too self-conscious to work before cameras," said the youngster, who charges between Rs 1000-1500 for each video depending on the length and editing involved.
Social media was the major market for Rahul as well whose friend circle from his days in Calicut University helped to spread the word and found him over 30 video assignments and countless photoshoots.
EDITORIAL | Lessons from the Kerala local body elections
After completing his formal education, Alappuzha-native Shivakumar was looking for a break in the theatre when the pandemic struck. A proven actor, he had worked in many street dramas and with travelling troupes during his student days. With his plans having to take a backseat due to the outbreak, the 24-year-old decided to try his luck with audio dramas.
As announcement vehicles whizzed around constituencies seeking votes for various parties, Shiva's innovative idea gave the entire experience a fresh vigour. The three-minute audio dramas shot in a conversation style, introduces the candidate to the voters, listing their credentials and achievements.
While Shiva writes the script and dubs for the protagonist, his friend Leon Peter Varghese becomes the second person behind the mike.
The duo charged Rs 2000 per drama and received orders from six different candidates. The studio rent was Rs 600 for recording and editing works. "There were no other expenses involved other than that," Shivakumar said.
Fun at work. It certainly was for all of them.