As fascinated by typography as she is by textile design, Akila Seshasayee manages to keep both her passions alive through two different professional ventures. While Designosis relies on her graphic design background, Toile Indienne transfers to fabric her love for stories!
AS: I pursued Visual Communication (Graphic Design) at the National Institute of Design (NID). The single most important thing that NID did for me was to awaken a certain way of thinking. I found the freedom and encouragement to look at, understand and explore this ‘way of seeing’ such that it has become intrinsic to my work process. And of course, being at NID one just breathed in the Bauhaus influence!
The other thing that has had a huge and positive impact on my work is reading, including what I did not read. I barely read anything about graphic design (in fact I never bought a single graphic design book other than The Graphic Language of Neville Brody) because I felt that it would be hard to find my own voice while looking at what other graphic designers did. In fact I often wonder how graphic designers manage at all to be original today, with the kind of visual force feeding that happens as a result of our networked world.
My reading habits have always been wide and eclectic – there’s just so much out there that’s fascinating to know. I feel this is the single most important thing that has made me the designer I am, because I find I can make connections that are both wide and deep when I am thinking about a design problem.
You spent a decade working for various publications and television - what were your major takeaways from that period?
This story is from the POOL 105 edition of POOL.
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