Making Life Creative

Since she was a little girl, Sharmin Rahman was always inclined towards things a little 'outside-the-box'. The first time her uniqueness was discovered was when her mother caught her making little drawings all over her clothes instead of studying. With the love of drawing and the knack for creativity, Sharmin knew that she wasn't destined for a normal desk job.
 “After my intermediate exams, I had a one year gap due to the session jam at Dhaka University, since that was where I was applying for higher education. During this time, I joined a designer house for part time work. I ended up working there for a very long time,” says Sharmin. While Sharmin was soothing her passion for drawing and design through working at the designer house, she chose to study on another passion of hers at Dhaka University- English Literature. “Even though I enjoyed studying Literature I knew I would have to work in the creative field. I didn't really know I was the only woman there,” says Sharmin.
After realising that she has gotten all that she could from working at the designer house, Sharmin decided to change track and go into advertising. “I started my journey into the world of advertising with Bitopi. I joined there as a Copywriter. I then started working full time there as creative supervisor,” says Sharmin. While in Bitopi, Sharmin worked for the campaign of the brand Djuice. “I grew with the brand and when it had started dying out, I decided to move onto something different,” she says. Still staying true to advertising, Sharmin joined Asiatic as creative manager. Soon enough, after gathering enough experience and proving herself, she was recently promoted to group creative director, the youngest to hold such a position in Advertising. Recently, she was also mentioned to be the first woman to work in such a position in advertising.
According to her, her biggest achievement, despite the awards from BrandForum that Asiatic has won for different campaigns, is her understanding of the youth. “My work has so much to do with connecting with the youth. I have to think like them in order to make my work appeal to them. I think this is a very big advantage for me because even if I can't make a big difference myself, I can at least create a spark in the youth, who are after all the ones carrying this country forward, to make positive impacts,” says Sharmin.