Meet Charithra Sathyanarayanan | UI/UX Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Charithra Sathyanarayanan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Charithra, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I had an epiphany recently triggered by this brilliant colourful toy sitting on the corner of my study table, the Rubik’s cube. I realised that this toy which was every kid’s favourite in the 90’s is quite analogous to my life up until now. The cube is a concoction of coloured pieces. These pieces seem to fall into place if you make a turn and seem to fall out of place if you make another. Nevertheless, the unison of colours is only achieved by the player as he has a clear conception of what the result should look like; he just needs to make a few turns to figure out how to get there.

The very first turn that I made in life was when I joined an undergraduate degree course in Computer Science engineering. I decided to emulate my father who was an engineer by profession and wanted to pursue engineering. I did B.Tech from the SRM Engineering College, and completed my degree in 2012 with flying colors. I was hired by a leading IT firm from College but this is when my life took the turn. It seemed understandable to follow my father’s footsteps as an engineer, but I felt no pull towards the field. Even as a computer science graduate, I have always had a penchant for art and fashion. The artist in me led me to arrive at creative solutions for several problems. The creative spirit in me was so unhappy doing desk work and I yearned to do something more fulfilling with my life. After a bit of soul searching I decided to pursue M.F.A Design Management from Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My journey to becoming a Designer was definitely not an easy ride. I had a troubled childhood. A lot of people who knew me as a kid would have thought that I wouldn’t succeed much in life. I got in trouble with many of my teachers and was often left behind. I often wished I could be told what I did wrong instead of being told I did something wrong. My parents felt very terrible for me and were not sure how to help me. My father was transferred to a different city and they chose to change my schooling in another school in the city. My middle school was a lot better in a different school. I felt more wanted and cared for all of a sudden, and I loved it. I felt like I belonged more, and this phase gave me a lot of confidence, which had been slipping as I got older and out of elementary school. This was when I started to realize that I wasn’t the problem after all.

As mentioned previously, I chose to pursue engineering at my Undergrads. Though I realized midway that this was not the field I relished, I did complete my school with flying colors and struck a prime Job with a renowned technology company. However, I felt stifled and found no opportunity to let my imaginations fly with the work decided to pursue something else.

I was blessed with very understanding parents who were willing to support me with every experiment of mine to find my passion and pursue the same. It was at this time that I expressed that I would like to pursue further in the spheres of design and was selected for Post graduate studies in the United States. My parents readily agreed to support me through this endeavor even while knowing that I would have to live alone in a foreign land devoid of the protection that was offered by them. This was in-fact quite unheard of in the community that I hailed
from.

The journey till date has molded me into the person that I am today with the confidence to etch my own mark in this competitive world and establish a name for myself.

Any great local spots you’d like to shoutout?
The Boardwalk at Granite Park would be one of my go-to places when I have someone visiting me. The entire chain of restaurants there are amazing and its such cozy place to eat & to chill

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to give a Shoutout to my University Savannah College of Art and Design also known as SCAD. I came to SCAD in 2016 with the intention of doing an M.F.A Design Management. SCAD gave me the platform to not just learn about Design from a theorical perspective but from a practical sense too. One of the projects I was involved in was in collaboration with the local Savannah community to find ways to mitigate the negative effects of gentrification. Gentrification is a process of altering economic and demographic standards of historically disinvested neighborhoods. While gentrification brings economic progress to some, it also results in hikes, displacement, and disempowerment to others. One of key outcomes of this project was “Street art is a voice of voiceless people”. Street art can transform and revive abandoned buildings into revitalized public spaces, where people can engage with each other and feel a sense of greater participation with their local community. Here we can view street art as an alternative means of communication that emerges within the cracks infrastructural breakdowns. The team used this insight as inspiration to design a space that is conducive for alternative voices like this to emerge, creating the potential for positive change and civic engagement. The purpose of these installations was to create awareness and a stronger sense of identity and empowerment within the neighborhood. While we do not claim that this project solved gentrification in this case, the project shows how infrastructural breakdowns present opportunities for designers to develop unique insights towards common systemic problems and lead to alternative solutions to address them.

SCAD exposed me to the creative problem solving space and I explored what research can do in design. This helped me realize the impact I could bring to the society.

Website: www.charisathyan.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charithra/