We had the good fortune of connecting with Gurmukh Bhasin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gurmukh, what do you attribute your success to?
In my opinion success comes from passion and hard work for what you love to do.  I personally believe that anyone can be successful at anything they wish, they just need to be the best at that specific thing.  The only way to become the best is to practice, work hard and fully enjoy the work you do to the point there is no boundary between work and play and your life becomes a dedication to your work.  Your work never ends or begins, it is just an extension of who you are and you are always working on improving your identity and brand with everything you do. I started my career off as an Architectural Designer with both my Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Architecture and over 8 years professionally in the field.  I worked on quite a few large projects around the world, but ultimately didn’t enjoy what I was doing for a living.  Eventually I learned about Concept Design in the Entertainment Industry and decided that was where my interests lie.  I started teaching myself how to create my own conceptual ideas in 3D, took a few classes here and there and the rest is history.  I merged the design techniques and train of thought I learned in architecture school with my knowledge of 3D modeling and rendering to come up with my own process of sharing my original ideas with my audience.  Finally I ended up working as a Concept Designer on a few very large entertainment projects which helped build my name and reputation.  After that I branched out on my own as a freelance Concept Designer and now have a very wide range of clients across multiple industries, Industrial Design, Architecture, Entertainment and more.   I get hired to bring original ideas to the table, think outside the box, share those ideas with photo realistic renderings so my audience clearly understands what I have created and help those clients win millions of dollars worth of business and investments.  My mind is always turned on to the projects I am working on and new ideas can come to me at any moment.  Sometimes I even come up with new ideas in my dreams and design them out the next day in 3D.  As well, I always have personal projects on the side of my professional projects and constantly find a balance of doing projects for money and projects for just me.  Everything I do I pour my passion into and I treat it all as a representation of my brand and me as a Designer.  My clients and audience can always see my passion behind my work and that shines in the quality of what I create.  My passion for design and sharing my original creations with the world is what has been the most important factor behind my success and is what has kept me curious and wanting to keep learning and growing as a designer.

 

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am addicted to design and creativity.  Ever since I was a young kid, I had a lot of passion for problem solving, loved understanding how things worked, always took apart radios and other electronics so I could see under the hood, and had lots of patience when it came to drawing/painting, building things, and using my creative brain.  To this day, I still have all the same qualities but now also have to tools to represent my designs in a professional and clear manner.   In my concept design work, what I think sets me apart the most is my educational and professional background in Architecture and designing for the real world, mixed with my desire to create fictional vehicles, props and environments.  My futuristic designs are always grounded in reality which helps my audience understand what I have created in a comfortable way without needing a verbal explanation.  They just see the images of my design and understand how it works and the story behind it.  I pay very close attention to detail and use each design move to express a story of how the thing I have created works, how it was manufactured, how it is fixed and maintained, where it was made and what it is made of.  All these elements come together and subconsciously tell the story I am imagining to my audience.   On the other side, when it comes to the real world design work I do for my clients, I am able to break outside the box and explore new ideas that are still derived in function and reality but pushing the limits of what has already been done without making the new designs too abstract or extreme.  I represent my creations as photo realistic renders which clearly shows my clients the creations.  This method doesn’t allow for vague and sketchy designs where the client doesn’t really know what they are getting.  The design conversation is very clear from the start which allows it to move clearly throughout the process and come to a final desired result quickly.  As well, using 3D as my design tool, the entire object is designed as a whole, thinking through every part thoroughly.  This allows my clients to completely understand and sign off on the complete design as they can see it from every angle and make sure everything works together.  To get to where I am today has definitely not been an easy road.  Many times I wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing (especially my career change from Architecture to Concept Design), but luckily I fully believed in myself and knew that no matter what this is the way I wanted to create my design work.  As of now, it has been 20 years of learning and practicing design professionally and there have been many bumps and turns to over come.  In the beginning there weren’t very many people creating designs the way I do, so I had to mix different techniques with my own ideas to create my design process all the while being told that I am doing it wrong by others.  To this day, there still really aren’t that many people who work the way I do, but luckily many of my clients find it very valuable for their business and I have been able to not only be successful at what I do, but also love and pour my passion into what I do for a living.

Any great local spots you’d like to shoutout?
A week long best friend trip would have to include a couple days at the beach.  Venice, Marina Del Rey, and Point Dume Malibu are my favorites for beach time.  For food, there are a bunch of amazing Vegan and Vegetarian spots that we would have to visit.  Sage in Culver City, Counter Part in Echo Park, Lettuce Feast Plant Based food truck, Crown of India near Sunset and Highland, Monty’s good burger in Korea Town, and Baja Buds on National and Sepulveda are on the top of my list of go too places.  For drinks I love to keep it local and simple.  Hinanos Venice, Bigfoot West (because it is down the street from where I live), and Backstage Culver City are a few of my favorites.  There would be some hikes in Malibu or Pacific Palisades too.  Other than that, I am sure we would find an art show to check out, or some live music to listen too.  Roaming around Downtown is always a fun thing to do without a plan and just see where the night goes.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are definitely plenty of family and friends who have helped me along the way.  So many of those who have shared with me, encouraged me, given me hugs and lifted me up throughout my journey.  Too many to name here, so in this shoutout I would like to recognize the larger educational institutions that have helped me learn a lot and been a source of inspiration for many years.  These sources think outside the box, encourage people to follow their dreams and provide guidance to help you find your way.  Gnonom School of Visual Effects (https://www.gnomon.edu/), Southern California Institute of Architecture (https://www.sciarc.edu/), Art Center (http://www.artcenter.edu/), BrainStorm School (https://www.brainstormschool.com/#home),  CGSociety (https://cgsociety.org/), ArtStation (https://www.artstation.com/), and IFCC-Croatia (https://ifcc-croatia.com/) are just a few of the amazing schools and websites that have helped me tremendously throughout the years.

Website: www.gurmukhbhasin.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gurmukhb/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gurmukhbhasin/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/gurmukhbhasin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gurmukh.bhasin
Other: https://www.behance.net/gurmukh https://www.artstation.com/gurmukh https://gbhasin.cgsociety.org/