Weaving Design as Anushka Tendolkar.

Anushka Tendolkar.

Senior Visual Designer, UI/UX Designer, Ultraviolette

After all, there is nothing like ‘original’ in the world. Everything is inspired by something else.

Anushka Tendolkar graduated as a Communication designer and started working with homegrown businesses eventually leading to bigger brands like Adobe, Dentsu, KFC, Kyoorius and also made it to DesignxDesign’s curated list of 20 under 30 designers in India in 2021. She is currently working at an automobile company- Ultraviolette Automotives and exploring the field of UI/UX design.

Personal ethics in my design process

One of the most famous quotes that has resonated with me is “If you can design one thing, you can design anything” by Massimo Vignelli. I have always gone above and beyond what was expected of me to push my limits and one such thing that I participate in every year since 2017 has been 36 days of type, a global challenge where designers participate in creating their versions of the English alphabet and 0-9 numbers. The most interesting part - there is no reward so everyone participates just to nurture their creativity. But with so many people taking part in the challenge it is fairly easy to get plagiarized by someone or come under the plagiarism radar yourself. After all, there is nothing like ‘original’ in the world. Everything is inspired by something else. And that is exactly how I approach my work. While outright copying someone else's work is plagiarism, taking different aspects and pieces of work and combining them to make it your own is being inspired. I always make sure that if there is a particular piece close to my inspiration, I credit the artist for inspiring me. This way, you not only give credit where credit is due, but you also gain respect for being transparent, a rare quality in the creative world that should be more prevalent.

I have discovered the ideal balance by combining all of my skills in branding, illustrations, and UI/UX to practice design the way it was always meant to be—cohesively.

Fast Tracking understanding ethics at Ultraviolette

While my design career has been quite diverse in terms of the industries I have dabbled into, my current role at Ultraviolette is something I never envisioned myself enjoying as much as I do. Automotive UX, while it has always been a part of the vehicle design process, has now become even more extensive due to the integration of tech with the boom in electric vehicles. I have discovered the ideal balance by combining all of my skills in branding, illustrations, and UI/UX to practice design the way it was always meant to be—cohesively.

I believe in ‘play’ as part of my daily routine and its grave importance to leading a more creative life.

The form vs function debate feels redundant to someone like me, whose priority as a visual designer, has always been to create aesthetically pleasing designs. Form and function go hand in hand and in some cases, form outlives function. However, as a UX designer in an automotive company, my top priority is safety. While the vehicle itself is not designed by me, the experience around it is. The responsibility of ensuring the safety of an automobile through design is a big one, which automatically makes ethics around it unavoidable.

One of the most interesting things to work on has been the bike display console. The display designs have gone through colour testing indoors as well as outdoors in peak sunlight, with and without a helmet on. To make sure the experience is inclusive, the colours are also tested with AAA accessibility to ensure the contrasts are friendly to those with colourblindness. The typography on the console has been designed in a way that the letters are clear, and monospaced for better readability even at high speeds.

As a brand designer for a new-age automotive company, I make sure our tone of voice is never sexist and welcomes audiences of all genders. We make sure our brand language is not overly masculine and all these have been weaved in together because of the various kinds of audiences I have catered to with all the different brands I have worked with.

Ethics in Personal life

I get a particular question way too often, from friends and followers both- ‘How do you manage to do so many things? Do you have extra hours in the day?’ My ethics are deeply connected to how I treat myself, my work and my body. I am particular about discipline when it comes to being organized and also towards my health. Having grown up playing badminton, basketball and table tennis on a competition level and then hitting the gym since I was 16, I have always made time for my fitness.

I believe in ‘play’ as part of my daily routine and its grave importance to leading a more creative

life. No matter how swamped I am with work, I try to do something for myself which doesn’t revolve around work, be it cooking, playing a Ukelele, working out, having a long shower with some nice music, catching up on my favourite TV shows and enjoying movies. If ‘play’ is not part of my day, I tend to get cranky which has a domino effect on my mental state for a few days. And this kind of mentality has been instilled in me because I grew up watching my mom manage a home and her work together, which naturally seeped into me as an adult. The responsibility of living alone (actually with friends) and managing a house already comes with its set of problems and chores, but it pushes me even harder to make time for myself and continue building on my personal brand- to make personal work, collaborate with people I look up to and be an active part of the design community in India.

While I learnt most of my skills by putting in the extra hours and trial and error, studying in a design school had an impact that changed my life forever. It opened me up to things beyond my imagination and made me harness my emotional powers in a purposeful way which now bleeds into my work all the time- whether it is designing for accessibility or creating relatable illustrations for my Instagram!