Saurabh Chandekar at Parul University

Saurabh did not open with a talk. He opened with a mirror activity: students raised their hands to their faces as imaginary mirrors and made their most extreme facial expressions. The exercise was not an icebreaker. It was a deliberate release of self-consciousness. In this field, he said, we are performers first. Before designers, illustrators, or communicators.

The way ideas are presented to clients is a performance. Two things are non-negotiable: confidence and shamelessness. He connected this to the Panchamveda. If you aspire to turn your creativity into a meaningful career, explore the Bachelor of Design at Parul University and take the first step towards a future shaped by innovation, design thinking, and creative expression.

The Cannes Lions Award-winning campaign was created during Saurabh’s time at Ogilvy. The context: the 2013 Mahakumbh Mela, the world’s largest religious gathering, over a hundred million people assembled. Lifebuoy‘s message was simple: wash your hands with soap before eating. The medium AAIBA found was the roti, present at almost every Indian meal, eaten only with the hands.

The moment of truth: someone picks up their roti, sees the message, stops. Roti with writing on it. The question sitting right there in their hands before they eat. That trigger point, finding the moment when a message and person meet in a way that cannot be ignored, is the entire job. The Cannes jury agreed.

Each illustration placed the scooter not as a product being advertised but as a presence that had always been there.

The process: a final sketch approved, then tracing on Illustrator. Two months of work. The client requested changes 85 to 90 times. The scooter’s angle adjusted, details removed, the 35th illustration revised. Through all of it, Saurabh said he felt no anxiety because he understood his actions and their purpose. Passion and consistency together create the conditions that make that possible. If you are passionate about visual storytelling and creative communication, explore Communication Design at Parul University

Saurabh named a specific problem in design. The trap: minimal is valid when it comes from a genuine decision to reduce to the essential. It is not valid when chosen because it is trending, requires less effort, and is easier to justify. ChatGPT fuels this by teaching an entire generation to use considered language while the considered work is non-existent. His distinction: know when a design decision is yours and when it is a product of what the algorithm taught you to find appealing. That gap is where authenticity lives or dies.

He also drew a boundary: an illustrator’s span is a lifetime, a content creator’s span is 60 seconds. Both require enormous effort. The two efforts are fundamentally different and should not be confused. The problem right now is that people choose the 60 seconds because Instagram gives immediate feedback. The lifetime span has no such feedback loop. Willingness to work without that immediate validation is what separates the two paths. Turn your imagination into a profession with the right animation course after 12th, explore Animation and VFX courses at Parul University