SUMAN SHRESTHA

But i will try my best, because it is our job to educate them.

I am realizing it more as the responsibilities of we webdesigners. Let’s educate our clients. 

Let’s contribute from our position to change the perspective “Nepali client haru yestai ho”.

website sakiyo sir.

spelling mistake cha content ma.

yo ta cms ho sir, ma cms training dinchu, tapai afai garna saknu huncha.

yo euta page milaidinus ani payment sure.

ok sir. vayo.

ok hamro email create gadinus ani payment sure.

vayo sir.

webspace badhaunu parla jasto cha, quotation pathaunus ani payment sure.

sent sir.

eh ok ma yeha discussion garchu ani payment sure.

grrr.

hamro manager sir bahira janu vo. tihar pachi payment sure.

marnus sir !

Monalisa famous navayeko vaye tyo art hunna thyo ra ?

Hami sanga famous navayeko Monalisa ra Da Vinci haru chhainan ra ?

=

If Monalisa wasnt famous, wouldn’t it be an art ?

Don’t we have Monalisas and DaVincis, who are not famous ? 

harek raat ko shunya .

nasuneko euta geet .

harek din ko bichhod .

jhasakka timro yaad .

ekai chin haraye .

afumai ramaye .

timi timrai desh ma .

ma timikai pugey .

nidari ma timi .

nidhara ma chumi .

maile maya layeeeeeeeeee .

- - -

{ 1 am . office . love you }

we lived in a perfect illusion,
and how we damn loved it.

we built the wall brick by brick …
we lived to be trapped …
we born to die …
we knew …
fools …

Just received the book from amazon.

“Do the work!” by Steven Pressfield.
{ http://www.amazon.com/Do-the-Work-ebook/dp/B004PGO25O }

Yet to read it complete. But couldnt resist from sharing the two paragraphs on the back cover:

“A child has no trouble
believing the unbelievable,
nor does the genius
or the madman.

It’s only you and I,
with our big brains
and our tiny hearts,
who doubt and overthink
and hesitate.”

I’ll be on the roof tomorrow morning with this book & a cup of coffee. Need to wrap up today’s job. Gotta “Do the Work!”

Dear Traffic Dai haru !

Tapai ko ra mero kahile thyak namilne vo hae ?

Tapailai manche tharkaunai parne, afulai chaplusi na aune.

Tapaile manpari garna paune, afulai chittai nabujne.

Ma k garya yo vanera sodhne, Tapai discuss garyo vanera lekhdine.

Tapai uniform ma dada, afu sojho janta.

Ma bike dinus vanne, Tapai manchhe ni lagla vanera tarsaune.

Pahile tharkaune, ani mathi bata phone ayesi chhodne.

Malai ta ris nai marena, Katti kich kich garne.

Baru ek din bhidam ki k ho dajubhai.

Just half an hour ago, i got an offline message in my Gtalk from a client-to-be (or i guess not) :

Suman jee… sanchai hunu huhcha.. Ma yata (***) bata (Mr. ***)..euta sano request garau vanera ! Hamro office ko home page ko lagi pani tempaltes design garnu parne thiyo…ekchoti templates design garera forward garidinus na…please thank you.

I would translate his request into the following:

Suman jee… sanchai hunu huncha ? Ek kilo aloo pathai dinus na .. pachi hisab garumla… please thank you. 

—-
For god’s sake ! I’m a designer, not a Tarkari pasale.

This is a copy-paste from a short conversation in facebook on my recent status:

My FB status was:
If u find me dead, arrest the society.
If u see me happy every tme u meet me, trust me i f*ed up this society.

A…: ha ha ha ha don’t suite these words to you … Suman ji… You are self motivated person yar….

Su Moksha: sorry for the offense A… ji.
but we’re too much worried about being judged.
so, i’ll leave it to you, judge me for my best or the worst :)

J… : If I found u among da group of psycho pple den whom 2 blame?

Su Moksha: ‎@j…, have you watched “a beautiful mind” ? or, “girl,interrupted” , or “into the wild” ?
whom would you blame for those psychos  ?

Everyone i meet , these days , has at least one great idea … something new … something revolutionary. I bet you agree. & i guess you too have one in your mind. Something like a “dream project”.

a job board.
a cultural portal.
a complete directory of nepal.
a realistic travel guide to thamel.
an e-library.
a hotel reservation site.
a stock-photo marketplace.
something new …

It feels good to hear them . Everyone is trying to make a change . If happened,  they would make an impact to our lifestyles, or hopefully our economy .

We’re infant in the internet world . Only 2.2% of total population of Nepal use internet . Thats depressing . But that gives us great opportunities, to start off new ideas , to launch new products .

But why is nothing new / great / revolutionary happening around ? Why are we killing our great ideas ? Are we afraid to try something new ? Why always be safe ? Why not take risk ?

Investment ?
Marketing problem ?
Not enough Research ?
Poor user-interface ?
Fewer internet users ?
Lack of online payment system ?

Do you have new ideas too ? Whats keeping you from making it happen ? Why are you killing your ideas ? 

An idea wont happen just because its great. Make it happen. Work on it. We need new ideas happened. It’s time, or rather… it’s late!

Seth Godin says “Being safe is too risky now” .

|  Chapter : Cheating
|  Book : Purple Cow
|  Author : Seth Godin

CHEATING

Jetblue Airways is cheating. Their low-cost structure, underused airports, and young, non-union staff give them an unfair advantage.

Starbucks is cheating. The coffee bar phenomenon was invented by them, and now whenever we think of coffee, we think Starbucks.

Vanguard is cheating. Their low-cost index funds make it impossible for a full-serice broker to compete.

Amazon.com is cheating. Their free shipping and huge selection give them an unfair advantage over the neighborhood store.

Google is cheating. They learned the mistakes of the first-generation portals and they don’t carry the baggage of their peers.

Wendy’s is chating. Their flexibility allows them to introduce half a dozen salad based entrees, capturing a big chunk of the adult market.

Ducati is cheating. Because they don’t have to make motorcycles for the entire market, they can specialize in high-profit, amazing bikes, which sell out every year.

HBO is cheating. Because they have to program original shows only one night a week, HBO can focus and invest and cream the networks. 

None of these companies are using the old-fashioned-advertising-based techniques to win. To their entrenched(but nervous) competitors, these companies appear to be cheating because they’re not playing by the rules.

Why aren’t you cheating?

—-

{ This is a repost taken from Lumanti’s blog. http://www.lumanti.com/the-story-behind-lumanti/ }

The year that was …

Two years back , those were my exciting days of working as a web-designer. Being a self-taught designer, I was very much obsessed to learning new design stuffs and watching the world’s trend in web design. And I was falling in love with vector illustration as well.

We designers used to surf internet and follow international web designers’ works. There weren’t much Nepali designers we knew, or whose works we could see/follow. But deep down I was sure that there were many Nepali designers out there who were passionate and obsessed to web/graphic design, who were capable of creating stuffs that could compete with the international designs.

The idea

I don’t have to recite here that Nepal is undoubtedly rich in arts & culture. We grew in cities where there are more temples than houses and those temples are decorated with amazingly carved patterns & designs. I thought, why can’t we put the same beauty of our original arts and culture in our graphic & web design?

So that was the main idea. To make an online portal where Nepali designers can share their designs which are influenced by Nepal.

I had no concrete plan on what exactly I was going to do, what exactly was my target. I just wanted to build a community of Nepali creative people. So I decided to make artworks that represents Nepali culture and to post them online as a free resource.

Get, Set, Go …

Then to get started I needed:

• A name
• A tagline
• A logo
• A website

The Name

I wanted a short & catchy name. I searched many Nepali words but most of the words didn’t have a domain available. Finally I found a Newari word “Lumanti” which also has an available domain name “lumanti.com”.

So, I got the name, Lumanti. The word is not much used in our daily life, so it’s got a fresh tone too.

The Tagline

And making a tagline was the easier one, “Showcasing a creative Nepal”, Simple and straight forward.

The Logo Object

Next, the logo. For logo too, I wanted something totally Nepali. I decided to take any typical object that can instantly represent Nepal. For inspiration, I walked around temples, I looked pictures of gods/goddess, I surfed sites & articles related to Nepali culture & tradition. After weeks of brainstorming, I found this object, a traditional oil-lamp. These lamps were hanged outside the windows of houses by Nepali people since ancient time.

I searched internet for a good picture of the lamp, but the above image was the best image I could find. So, based on this image, I made a vector illustration.

And there it was, the logo.

The Logotype Font

The earlier version of logotype I made was based on the font “lelim”, and for the tagline I used handwriting styled font “doctor”.

{Earliest version of the logo}

But after almost one year, I reworked on the logotype. This time I didn’t use a readymade font. Instead I created the fonts by customizing one of my favorite and one of the most beautiful calligraphic fonts in the world, a Newari font “Ranjana Lipi”.

{Newari Font “Ranjana Lipi”}

{The current logo}

The tagline is based on “Museo” font.

The website

I used  wordpress cms for the website. It’s easier to maintain and is sufficient for the requirements of Lumanti till now.

{Earlier version of lumanti.com}

I used to maintain it in my free time from my work life, but now it’s a major project in my daily work routine.

Supports & Contributions

As I was a full-time web designer in a company, I had many problems to run the design blog smoothly, considering time schedules and financial situations. But I am really thankful to my friends, colleagues and my junior brothers who helped me in any ways they could.

I won’t be able to thank them enough for their moral support and encouragement including the designers who have been contributing their artworks.

{Some published artworks from the earliest weeks of lumanti.com}

Lumanti at the moment

Today, after almost two years, though Lumanti may not has achieved its goals to the fullest, but it has been grown as a mature project. And through the journey of two years, I  am lucky enough to build a team of amazingly talented and passionate young minds.

And personally I too have learned a lot. I had a dream to build a “Showcase of Creative Nepal”, but I had no specific plans and goals. Now, I have turned my dreams into goals. Now, I have vision and plans for Lumanti.

Some future plans

1. Regular Updates in Lumanti.com
2. Updating through a Facebook Fanpage [ http://facebook.com/lumanti.fb ]
3. Contests for Lumanti FB fanpage & Lumanti.com
4.  A complete New Website

• We have started working out on a complete new website structure of Lumanti.com
• The next version of Lumanti.com will be a complete Users-focused Application.
• Customized profiles/portfolio gallery/groups/forums for Artists

Conclusion

Lumanti was an outcome of an amateur designer’s dream of building a community of Nepali designers. A small initiative has now grown as an ambitious project. With all support of our friends, colleagues & users, we as a team have built up enough confidence to pursue our commitment further.

We continuously look forward to your support, comments & feedbacks as we work hard on improvising Lumanti.com – showcasing a creative Nepal.

—————————————————————-
By: Suman Shrestha