Interviews with Palak Bhatt

India is known for its rich, colorful, and cultural vibrancy portrayed through different art mediums. Every region in India has its unique style of paintings. I hail from the western part of India and have grown up looking at various Indian art forms. There has long been a global market for Indian paintings, but interest in Indian art has lagged in the US. After moving to San Francisco, I noticed the lack of awareness of Indian Folk Paintings and would strongly like to promote them. I also want to help the artist from a remote part of India as they do not have access to the developed market. The Kala Foundation aims to establish a new platform to showcase the beautiful Indian Folk Paintings and make them more accessible to the international market.

My main focus was to bridge the gap between the need for Indian folk paintings in the US market and a platform to display the work by the artist from India to the international market.

It took almost a year to work on this concept. The idea was constantly evolving as I was interacting with people and the art scene in the US. I started the concept work in December 2016 and developed and executed it by December 2017.

There has long been a global market for Indian paintings, but interest in Indian art has lagged in the US. After moving to San Francisco, I noticed the lack of awareness of Indian Folk Paintings, and it strongly inspired me to promote them.

No, I do not plan to sell or lease the production rights. I intend to continue working on this concept by myself.

Art appreciation helps to look past what we see and open up the mindset by looking at different perspectives and interpretations of the art. This is what made me design this particular type of work.

No, there were no designs or designers that helped influence the design of my work.

As I noticed the lack of awareness of Indian Folk Paintings in the US, I took this opportunity to work and create awareness by promoting them in the international market outside India.

Frankly, I have not come across a similar concept and that is what makes my design unique.

As the design is about art appreciation and creating awareness of these Indian Folk Paintings, I decided to name the project that resembles the purpose and is easy to remember and pronounce. The name of this project is The Kala Foundation, where Kala means Art or Skill in Indian scripts.

Softwares used for this project were Sketch for designing, InVision for prototypes, and Adobe Creative Cloud for editing and mocks.

The Kala Foundation focuses on three distinct forms of Indian Folk Paintings like Madhubani painting from the state Bihar, Gond painting from the state Madhya Pradesh, and Warli painting from the state of Maharashtra in India. Having the diverse art scene and culture present in India, this concept and platform can be used for similar other paintings and art forms, and this is the unique aspect of my design.

I collaborate with general people at one end and the folk artist on the other end during the research stage. I worked by myself when it came to designing, development, and execution.

Art enthusiasts can use the App to find paintings or order an existing Indian folk painting with a customization feature. The Kala Foundation website bridges the gap between the artist and art enthusiasts by introducing Indian folk paintings with the process and techniques.

The goal was to find new connections and then begin exploring the relevance, conceptually and visually. The process started by identifying camps that impact the concept. Finding connections helped me focus on the world around us and how it is interconnected. I set out to discuss the problem with others by creating and hosting a meeting with people from the target audience. I also volunteered at the Asian art museum in San Francisco to understand the art scene. For in-depth research, I went to India and met few artists, got to know their process and views on reviving their paintings to the international market. My design was influenced by on-ground reality based on real-life interviews.

One of the challenges that I faced during this project was connecting the Indian Folk artist to the US market. The language was the main barrier for the artist. Through The Kala Foundation, the artists are given exposure by removing the language barrier and support by uplifting their livelihood.

I received an email about the competition from the A'Design award in addition to my friend's recommendation, and I decided to submit my design.

I learned that my concept is broad and can extend to other cultures from different countries to create art awareness.

As a kid, I was into creativity and expressing myself visually by creating sketches. Being born and brought up in a diverse country like India, a vibrant culture, art, and architecture played a massive influence on my journey towards being a designer. I knew I wanted to be a designer but, I wasn’t sure of what specialization to choose among various design fields. I began my design journey in 2007 with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Design from Symbiosis International University in Pune, India, where I got a chance to explore graphic design, animation, film and video. After graduating, I gained experience working in a design studio as a graphic designer, and this is where I knew that I wanted to grow more in this field. I moved to San Francisco in early 2014 to earn an MFA in Graphic Design and Digital Media from the Academy of Art University. My ambition to become a designer fueled up more by working for Fortune 100 companies and accelerated my childhood vision to become a designer into reality.

Design is all about change. It is a process if used correctly to solve the right problem; it can change the world for the better by its outcome. Design can function at multiple levels and in different ways. It is all around us, yet it has different meanings to people.

I enjoy challenging projects and creating meaningful products that are accessible through intuitive design.

The most important and one of my favorite experiences was to design products on the Civic Engagement team at Facebook for the upcoming International Elections. One of the products I worked on was the Candidate videos tool which helped the candidates running for election upload their videos on Facebook. As people value most is hearing directly from candidates in their own words. This tool showed both information about the candidates as well as videos created by candidates on topics like why they’re running for office, what policy issues they care about, and what they hope to accomplish if elected. The tool helped the candidate connect directly to the people and was launched for the 2018 Brazil General Election, 2018 US Midterms, and the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections in India.

The first thing I designed for a company was Ice cream packaging.

I have used pen and paper to express my ideas since the beginning, and I still prefer it. But when it comes to technology, it has become a complete package for expressing my design thinking.

I am a morning person, and that is when I have the most energy and like to get my creative juices flowing.

While working from the concept to the execution stage, I am focused between the user, technology, and business while creating useful, meaningful, and successful product outcomes.

No matter what design stage I am in, I am always passionate about the work I do.

After the design is realized, I re-review my journey with the design. Create knowledge repositories and prepare for the next project.

When it is planned, developed, and executed well.

I look at the overall interface and how I can interact with the product. I also give credits if the design is visually focused. It shows that extra efforts were taken into investing in the products. Besides solving the problems, it also makes it easier for users from different backgrounds to understand them, making a frictionless experience.

Design should be the solution to the problem. It should improve on every instance to communicate the message and finding the right solutions by creating a harmonious society.

Design is all about change and is constantly evolving. It responds to a changing world. Extensive involvement of different technologies is also playing a vital role in design evolvement, including the realization of Artificial Intelligence.

My design inspiration comes from everyday life. It comes from my surroundings or the middle of a conversation that ignites a spark or through exploring different cultures, people, and their experiences.

I work with many clients, so I have to be adaptive to different styles. I focus on the company’s defined design system for the best design efficiency while maintaining consistency and creating frictionless experiences throughout the products.

I was born and brought up in a diverse country like India, where a vibrant culture, art, and architecture played a massive influence on my journey towards being a designer. Now I live in San Francisco, and there is a good design culture here. My interaction with diverse people and tech giants constantly evolves and sharpens my design thinking.

Garden, meditation space, tea-cup collection, work desk, and artworks.

Most of my time in the day I spend designing, followed by cooking, and FaceTime with family and friends.

Find your calling rather than going with what other people are doing. Build a connection with people with common design interests that will help you grow. Be persistent and have patience.

Exploration— Paper and WhiteBoard.

Wireframes and High Fidelity Mocks— Figma and Sketch.

Prototype— InVision and Framer.

Presentation—Keynote.

Illustration—Adobe Illustrator.

Animation—Adobe After Effects.

Layouts—Adobe Indesign.

Edits—Photoshop and Lightroom.

Pandemic has changed my working style for good. Before, I used to find myself complaining of not having enough time while working on site. Now I take the opportunity of working from home as a blessing and keep a good work-life balance. Keeping a to-do list of my daily, weekly, and monthly tasks has helped me while working on multiple projects simultaneously. As a designer, one should not feel overworked but be flexible and enjoy the process.

There are a lot of decisions to consider before defining the duration of the project from concept to execution. Different types of design have different turnaround timings. The client's timeline and budget are equally important in this case. Typically, it can take from a few weeks to a month to a year long.

I get frequently asked by a beginner who wants to start a career in design and move to the US to pursue higher studies. Graduate students are interested to know the interview process and how they can get hired by fortune 100 companies. As I have been fortunate to have mentors in my design journey, I take this opportunity to give back to the design community by helping beginners to get their foot in the design world and help them succeed in their chosen profession.

I have worked across several industries and verticals from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies, including; social media, civic engagement, hospitality, healthcare, telecommunication, and real estate.

I am self-motivated and work independently but equally enjoy working in a collaborative environment with cross-functional partners like product managers, engineers, content strategists, marketing, etc.

You can reach me through LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/palak-bhatt