email this

Episode I: The Wonder Years [PRE 1995]

Amin added this on February 12, 2009


This is actually the prequel to the OneMethod saga, so if you don’t give a shit, you might want to skip this one. And just to be clear, there will be no Fred Savage or Darth-whatever references.

I’ve been asked a few times about what got me to start a Design Agency considering I had no education or experience in that world. My typical answer was “Why the fuck not??” – I realize now, that this answer is not ideal in most cases, so let me give you a little Wonder Years background as to where the madness all began. I promise to keep this one short….maybe.

First off, my parents are both Chemical Technologists. I’m not really sure what that means; all I know is that I had a periodic table on my bedroom wall and all the test tubes and Bunsen burners a kid could want. Following the tradition of most immigrant parents, they wanted their first born son (actually, I ended up being the only child) to become something that they could brag about in their social circuit – you know, the standard stuff: “my kid’s gifted, he’s skipped three grades, gets straight A’s, draws straight lines, just got knighted by the Queen, and can get through most nights without wetting the bed” – now there’s a son to proud of! Unfortunately, I was only able to accomplish one of those feats ;-)

Growing up, I was a pretty disgruntled little dude cuz it seemed every other kid around me (at least through the family circle) was a prodigy child! Each and every one of these bastards (I’m just being a hater) were fast tracking through high school, pulling 90%+ averages, and working part-time jobs that’d put Waterloo grads to shame. And then there was me… taking summer school just to catch-up, workin hard on that craptacular C+ average, and tossing my paper route in a dumpster so that I could go work on my NBA career. Basically, I had a conflicting set of priorities, which in turn, made life with mom and pops a bit of a bumpy one.

And so it became clear as mud that with my less-than-stellar grade point average and the fact that my notebooks looked more like sketch books, medicine, law and engineering weren’t exactly the right paths for me. Luckily, I had dreams of going to art school for design however, unluckily, my financiers (aka mom & pops) weren’t really feelin that, so I tried to figure out a roundabout way of getting back into something creative. My solution: go to business school for marketing and maybe I could backdoor (not that kind) my way into the creative world.

So there it is – I squeezed into Ryerson (much to the dismay of the fam, cuz in their eyes, RyeHigh was basically on par with Devry – not that there’s anything wrong with that). Moral of the story: Screw yo’parents! ummmm…. ok, maybe that’s not the right message. How bout: Follow your Dreams. Awww…. that’s perrty.

about

The Skinny On OneMethod

As cliché as it sounds, you could call us a ‘Jack’ of all trades. Well, perhaps more aptly put, we are a ‘Jack, Amin, Steve, Pat, Tay, Dylan’ of all trades.

about

Eyeing The OneMethod CEO

Just last week, the fine folks from Eye Weekly came by to check out OneMethod President and CEO Amin Todai. At the start, they were simply interested in how and where the man works but by the end they might have been more interested in available positions at OneMethod.

about

A Day In The Life Of Our CEO

The gang over at Buzz-Beast just launched a new series entitled “The Way I Work.” They kicked it off with a day-in-the life look at OneMethod’s President and Chief Creative Officer Amin Todai. Check it out.