Ankur Rander | My story so far

Howdy partner, Welcome to my planet. I am Ankur Rander, a young creative from Hyper Island now working at Mori Inc Tokyo
and here is my story. Launch the spaceship and discover everything that blinks, flutters and moves or jump straight to my work.
I strongly recommend the first option :)

I was born in a small town called Makrana (Rajasthan), located in the north of India.
Like most of the kids in India, I grew up playing cricket on the streets, not on computers.

"It was my mother's paintings and my sister's self-designed clothing, that kindled my love for
colours and art. I spent maximum time playing with clay, wax and paint.

Every winter I would build my own kites and fly them and see them disappearing in the clouds.
I would write my name with a message on my kite and let it go with the hope that someone
would get it across the mountains. I love the mountains and the horizons.

When I was nine years old, I went to a boarding school, named Mayo College, to study.
This is the best thing that ever happened to me. I owe so much to this school. All the learnings and the experiences that the school provided me with, made me confident, independent and a fighter.

I came out of this school with strong learning experiences and friends that are family to me now.
I have endless stories to narrate about life here at school.
My learnings influence my entire thought-process and decision-making.

In my first ever computer graphics project I drew this building
on the computer using the LOGO programming language.

Sports was a significant part of our school curriculum. I loved playing squash for the school team.
It was demanding as well as challenging and it filled me with the will power to push myself.

I spent a lot of time in the Art School experimenting with various forms of art.
The last row in class and sketching saved me from all the boring lessons for the most part,
and every hide out in the school campus for the rest.

Here I was in Mumbai, getting to know more about the real world.
The city and people influenced me in a lot of ways. I came here to study Computer Engineering.
I was stuck between the engineer and the artist parts within me for the first few years.

I bought my first motor bike which shares the same year of birth as me - a 1989 Royal Enfield model,
which I hold so close to my heart.

The use of internet around the world and the amazing stuff it encompassed within itself left me wondering.
It inspired me to get into this world and explore further.

This is where the heart of a designer and the mind of an engineer came together.
My growing interest in web and craving to learn more and more led me to work as a freelancer.
I started freelancing for Lowe and Partners Mumbai.

Programming didnot interest me much until one day, we had a web programming lecture, after which I went back home, searched how to make a website, took some tutorials and got my first site live. It was magical for me to create content for the web. Only now do I realise how valuable my technical background is, for the work I do.

I always wondered who made these billboards that I saw in the city until I met those people for real. Working at the agency made me feel that I was moving in the right direction. It was not too long before I graduated and joined Lowe as a junior creative. I learnt how brands worked and what communication is, how advertising was an everyday part of life and in this whole process I started to dig deeper into the field of advertising.

This led me to Hyper Island Stockholm. Learning how to create a culture and adapt to changes.
Life at Hyper was full of surprises, meeting people, getting inspired, hearing stories and realising how
close I was to things I used to sit and watch on my computer back home.

I learnt how to take risks, think big, and experiment because unless you experiment with something,
you will never know if you love it or not.

It made me rethink about the golden circle of my life. It inspired me, provoked me and challenged
me to explore territories I had never ventured into before.

The diverse teams of people from around the world gave me lot of exposure and insight into my work
and life and I will always be glad to have been a part of this network.

Starting from the team building activities and constructive feedback to the checking out with
our strongest feeling at the end of the day, every single tool was miraculous.

I have never seen so many post its up on the walls at one point of time.The 24 hour briefs and
collaborative ideation tools were some of my favourite things that I did here.

So that was my story so far! I am now working at Mori Inc. Tokyo with Creative Director Morihiro Harano.

Here is my work. This website has been made with love as an experimental story telling project using HTML5, CSS3 transformations,
jQuery animations and Javascript. Here is the making of this project. Thank you for visiting my planet. Hope you enjoyed the ride.

Howdy partner, Welcome to my planet. I am Ankur Rander, a young creative from Hyper Island now working at Mori Inc Tokyo and here is my story. Launch the spaceship and discover everything that blinks, flutters and moves or jump straight to my work.I strongly recommend the first option :)

I was born in a small town called Makrana (Rajasthan), located in the north of India.Like most of the kids in India, I grew up playing cricket on the streets, not on computers.

When I was nine years old, I went to a boarding school, named Mayo College, to study.This is the best thing that ever happened to me. I owe so much to this school. All the learnings and the experiences that the school provided me with, made me confident, independent and a fighter.

Here I was in Mumbai, getting to know more about the real world.The city and people influenced me in a lot of ways. I came here to study Computer Engineering.I was stuck between the engineer and the artist parts within me for the first few years.