Found the best version of myself near Little park, Hudson River Park, New York
From being an aspiring Listener
For as long as I can remember I’ve been drawn to stories and listening to people and their experiences. From being the most talkative student in class, where I would make every silent person in the class be more talkative to being asked to becoming a user experience designer, listening to user problems, and trying to find their solutions
My childhood learning was a very linear one, school life was all about building physical health and learning what is taught in school. I used to stay out of my house for the most amount of time playing, returning home only to watch WWE(then WWF) with my brother and learning things from my Nani(Grandmother).
I learned Bharatanatyam as a kid that taught me how to be disciplined. While it taught me culture and south Indian traditions, it’s not something I enjoyed. It was only after high school I found myself exploring things and learning about what I wanted to do as an individual.
When I realized…
Throughout my studies in architecture, I was trying to find my passion. I enjoyed creating plans and strategically designing spaces and finding solutions to problems one thing I never enjoyed was designing elevations, as I found them redundant.
Primary school design where my focus shifted from designing a building to designing for the kids and how they would like to see their school to be. Led me to design for creating experiences in spaces. I went on to design a school inspired by the school in Cambodia where kids learned about how to make a living for themselves.
Soon my architecture projects started to get converted into experience design projects where I focused on the end-user and who I was designing for and the people who are going to be using the space.
Creating experiences through spaces
As a part of my curriculum, I started working at SpaceMatrix, a corporate interior design firm. My journey there was beautiful as it taught me an In-house experience working with fellow designers and project managers rolling out projects as an Intern under the guidance of my mentor. I went out to be a part of the team where we designed office spaces for Airbnb, Deloitte, and many others.
Some sketches from the initial Airbnb Office(Gurgaon, India) Design, 2016. See the final office design here.
But the one thing that pulled me away from Spatial Design was how long the tenure of the design was, especially in architecture and how at the end of the day I was not impacting the users directly.
I explored other industries of Design as an art director for a couple of projects like ads for Pepsi and assisting art designers. But none of it gave me the happiness I was looking for.
One of my earliest inspirations was Airbnb, I remember early in my career seeing the interview of Brian Chesky with Design Studio. They reimagined Airbnb to be an identity of its own.
Airbnb started out as a simple idea of bed and breakfast and soon became a billion-dollar company. They wanted to create experiences and happiness for the people. Soon enough I realized my true happiness lied in users and user stories.
This is when I decided to pursue my master’s, and when I knew what I wanted to learn - which was designed for users and to create experiences.
The first step into my dream
I had often dreamt of studying outside India. exploring the world and exploring the industry that I will love. I landed in Sydney in late 2019, adjusting to the city that sleeps early (Which does not happen in India) and pursuing my Masters in Design at The University of New South Wales (UNSW).
Becoming a hustler
Soon after landing in Australia, I threw myself into becoming a volunteering junkie at different exhibitions around the city to be a part of the art & design culture. One of the best experiences of volunteering was at The Big Anxiety Festival & The 22nd Biennale of Sydney.
The silence of volunteering at The Empathy Clinic, The Big Anxiety Festival
Enjoying the artwork while volunteering at the 22nd Biennale of Sydney
I had the opportunity to meet many artists and designers, and one among who I have had the opportunity to work with - Anna Tregloan. With her, I worked on a mesmerizing project called The Impossible Project.
A digital exhibition of projects that became impossible curated by Anna Tregloan.
I have also been working at Boost Juice as a part-time job.
The journey continues….
I am looking to continue my journey into the world of digital design. I am looking for opportunities to work on and you could be a part of my story.