Tell us a bit about your role! Is there a “typical” day?
That’s a tricky one! I am part of both the design and the motion teams at COLLINS. So, one day I’m freely sketching new visual concepts for an R1 presentation; the next day I'll be helping bring a complex design system into motion; then there are days where I’m doing something else and altogether unexpected.
Two weeks ago I learned to use Octane to create photorealistic 3D product renders. One week ago I was experimenting with AI to create imagery for a quick project we worked on. Today I’m back on brand guidelines with a client. It’s always a new challenge. And there is no typical day here.
What was the biggest challenge in getting to your current position?
Perhaps the notion of the mere possibility of making it here itself. I recently stumbled upon a journal entry from 2019 — when I was still just a small designer in faraway India — recounting the first time I was struck by the thought of writing COLLINS an email, wondering if I would ever be good enough to work there. At the time, I balked at the prospect – at first.
Fast forward two years. Now with many (many) late nights of student work and the privilege of a masters degree from MICA under my belt, I sent an email to the only place in the world I wanted to work. They replied. And soon said, "yes.'
It’s easy to forget this bigger picture in the day-to-day; I still have to pinch myself every now and then.
What is your personal background and what role did it play in your career?
I was born and raised in Mumbai, which is and always will be home. I was brought up by two of the most nurturing parents in existence, but went to a school that was basically a factory.
Being lost in a crowd of so many faces makes you crave the thought of standing out. I enjoyed creative writing in school, coming up with fun short stories for my English exams (an English teacher in 8th grade once said I could write a book). I loved art, too — the abstract, imaginative side of it, not the representative. Design seemed to combine these two interests.
I quickly started exploring all sorts of technology and software during undergraduate design school, picking up as many tools and skills as I could. A pattern soon emerged during every project — every one I did had to be better than the last; and no two projects could be alike. The first time I met Brian Collins, he confirmed that those are one of COLLINS’ operating principles; make it new. It felt like a match.
What is your biggest career-related win? What is your biggest loss?
Win? I was recently invited to speak at Inscript, a virtual Experimental Type x Tech conference hosted by TDC, alongside some rather big names in the game.
Loss? Here I am unfortunately (or fortunately) at a loss for words. Every loss is a lesson! Or so I tell myself when I come up empty after attempting to dig for some evidently very repressed memories.
Which individuals and/or agencies do you gain inspiration from? Do you have any heroes in the industry?
Felix Pfaeffli of Studio Feixen is a force of nature. Ksawery Kirlewski is pure genius. Ryder Ripps is by far the coolest designer of all time.
I’ve also been genuinely enjoying Rick Rubin’s recent podcast circuit on his new book The Creative Act: A Way of Being, with its rather Whiteheadian-notions of the eternal creative unfolding of the Universe (Brian’s not going to like that I said this; he believes the book eventually descends into "non-cognitive, woo” territory. I personally tend to be open to woo in all shapes and sizes.)
I think Brian Eno is an incredible thinker. I can’t get over just how good Herb Lubalin was. I am often rather jealous of Shiva Nallaperumal. I feel I could go on…
If you could go back to your teenage years, would you have done things differently? Do you have any regrets?
I think I should’ve kept my love for reading intact. There was a time I used to read during meals and then in-between them. Then I got a laptop, got introduced to the internet, got my attention yanked in 700 different directions.
Nowadays, I have to consciously disconnect from the present happenings of the world (which, to be fair, are supremely interesting in themselves) to immerse myself in a book. But once I do there are fleeting moments of a familiar joy.
If you weren’t in your current industry, what would you be doing?
I like to think that if I knew all it entailed back in the day, I’d be studying philosophy right now. Then I remember being an artist comes pretty damn close.
What’s your one big dream for the future of the industry?
Maybe to take itself less seriously. Let’s all just have fun while we’re here, no?
What are your top tips for aspiring creative professionals?
AVOID TRENDS. It’s kind of sad to see people doing the same thing as everyone else just because it’s the ‘in’ thing. Do the reverse — go in the opposite direction! Do something else altogether!
Experiment! Even if everything has been done before, take two things on either extreme and mash them together. Play with the fabric of the thing itself. Find recurring patterns, or zoom in close. There are so many things to do.
As might be evident above, I feel rather passionately about this.
What are your top tips for other creative leaders?
One would be to find the middle ground between leading and listening. The best creative director I worked with had a clear vision, but always asked for my opinion, then listened to me with his soul. It was a golden time.
When you think about your team, what is the thing that matters to you the most?
Love and openness. The best work is produced with the team laughing while they make it.
And beyond work too — ultimately It (capital ‘I’, whatever that means) will be about the people we connected with, about the love we generated together, about the friends we made on the way.
This team is made up of the people I spend most of my waking hours with — I need to be able to have fun with them. And boy, do I.
Do you have any websites, books or resources you would recommend?
Too many, perhaps. I’ll limit to a selection of my favourite ideas that are also visually compelling.
- I recently chanced upon the unbelievably interesting work coming out of the Qualia Research Institute. They use scientific rigor to approach the fundamental nature of consciousness. Much of their work is visual in nature, lending insights into my own art/design practice – and life in general.
- The Cosmic Dance by Stephen Ellcock. It was recommended to me by an old COLLINS friend. It's a “visual journey from the minute to the infinite”, and a specific strain of design x metaphysics that I happen to be very interested in.
- On a lighter note, Xu Bing’s Book from the Ground: From Point to Point is an example of purely original thinking — a book without words, entirely set in universally-understandable emoji, icons and symbols, depicting twenty-four hours in the life of a typical urban white-collar worker. Graphic design at its very finest. If you go after any book, go after this.
