One of my first ever projects was an in-depth booklet.
Inside was a somewhat complex series of drawings and stories about dogs going to the beach, going on walks, doing all sorts of things. It was called the Dog Designing book. I was around 7. I rediscovered it recently on a trip back to my parents’ home and I have to say it was pretty good. I basically spent my early school years glued to the art corner; my mum says I’ll never leave.
Now I work as a junior designer, which involves less dogs (most of the time).
I’ve always leaned towards the conceptual end of projects – the research and strategy, the creative stage – rather than the craft itself. At university in Falmouth, where I studied graphic design, there were people who made really beautiful, gorgeous things. I enjoyed that part of the process too, but for me all the fun was coming up with an idea that I loved and that’s still true now. I like exploring and percolating over stuff, and then fitting it into different, exciting contexts. For my dissertation I explored British-South Asian queer representation in media, which is still important (and fascinating) to me.
You know you’re in a great job when there’s always laughter coming from the meeting rooms.
A lot of people have told me how lucky I am that Flying Object was my first graduate role and, having worked here for three years, I absolutely agree. The people are lovely, it’s genuinely rare to work past six o’clock and the support and flexibility around mental health is really, really good. I remember literally screaming down the phone at Tom, our co-founder and creative director, when I was offered the job. It had been a long process of looking for different roles after graduation, but as soon as I saw the post I was hell bent on doing the best application I could. I’m very internet literate, and the brilliant work Flying Object were doing – like Dating Twitter, for example – really felt like a perfect fit.
I worked on one of my favourite projects to date soon after that.
I’m really proud of the work I did helping Queer Britain – the UK’s first queer museum – come to life. It was just so rewarding. But my favourite brief so far has to be our work for Quizlet, a huge AI-powered studying app, particularly the Feed Your Brain execution. It was something that we really owned from the ground up: in-depth research speaking directly with our student audience, developing the strategy from insights and following that all the way through to the final videos.
I love discovering new ways of thinking; I’m always stalking other people’s work.
At the minute I’m obsessed with Uncommon, and loved Mother’s work on the Uber Trains campaign, too. Recently I really liked the Offbeat Sari exhibition at the Design Museum. It was an excellent exhibition and it was great to see Indian culture at the forefront of an exhibition. I took a lot of pride from it, and also a lot of fashion inspiration. Typically I’d only wear a sari for a big event or important occasion, but I didn’t realise how this tradition had started to overlap with streetwear. There were loads of examples of people wearing saris with cool trainers. It inspired me to blend the two cultures together; wearing parts of a sari with British clothes.
Soon I’m going to Italy to study design for five months, which I’m incredibly excited about.
I don’t know where it’ll take me next (more dogs? Who knows). Whatever happens, I doubt I’ll be straying far from the art corner.