Meet Anjali Deswandikar | Design Leader, Mentor, & Life Coach

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

Hi Anjali, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I am from Mumbai, a city that never sleeps. My dad was an architect, photographer and avid traveller. My mom has been a homemaker, teacher but a highly disciplined one. With them I spent all my vacations while growing up in travelling across the country and exploring different places, people, cultures. Both provided a loving environment where I was allowed to think “Anything is possible”. I studied Physics and Computers as my major for Bachelors to feed the constant curious mind. I then followed design path to enter the world of creativity. Doing a diploma in design gave me a toolkit to enormous ways to thinking about a solution to any problem.

Today I have spent more than 20 years in the field of design working in the areas of graphic design, e-learning, visual design, UX design, Research and building design teams and design practices. I am a design leader and I have developed my expertise into building sustainable design teams that grow and last long. From my upbringing, I practiced disciplined and hard-working approach towards things until they are done, a freedom to experiment new things and take up any challenge. From my education of science and design, I brought methodical and structured way of working to the design projects and to the design teams. Working with various companies big and small for hiring design teams, my background helped me arrive at an equation that would give a high percentage of perfect hires and help establish a strong design team that can cater to different king of design projects.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
After spending more than 20 years in the field of design, what excites me is working with my fellow designers, the “Human” aspect that we bring in while trying to find a solution and working with each other. For the teams/projects I have led, I am known as the most favourable lead by my team and the most trusted lead by the clients.

What sets me apart is, I listen, quickly understand and can keep a level head in a critical situation, because of this I can also speak different language to different people (for example, from designers to senior management folks) which lets me empathise with them to be able to solve problems effectively.

To come at the place where I am today professionally, it wasn’t easy but to overcome challenges, I kept the attitude of learning from experiences, picking up a lesson and not stopping to move ahead. I learnt:
– Even if you are a fresher, connect with as many people as you can from all levels around you.
– This exposes you to different stories of people and possibilities of what you select as your career within a design.
– Try not to break under pressure. Never take the feedback from clients/managers/piers personally.
– Take from that only what you can pick up to improve your skills. Believe me, it eventually makes you a stronger designer.
– Bad experiences are the best experiences, and the more you are exposed to bad people around you, as long as you know how to turn it into learning (and remain sane), it will help you mould into an expert to a great extent.
– Skills are more important than roles.

My story has given me unexpected twists and turns, but a bumpy ride only makes you stronger and to reach a higher goal one must take the bumpy ride. The moment I found myself settling in life, I threw myself into a challenging situation and that has helped me shape a better version of myself.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The places that are very close to my heart are Redwoods, Golden Gate bridge and Monterey. In the Bay area, one can go on a road trip in any direction and will definitely find a beautiful destination just in a radius of 50-70 miles. For exploring this area in a week’s time the itinerary can look like this: Day 1 – SF Downtown, SalesForce Tower, Ghiradeli Experience with lunch at Pier 39. Some great restaurants serving Fish.
Day 2 – SF drive through Golden Gate Bridge and explore Golden Gate Park. It’s beautiful to see clouds coming on the road anytime of the year near Golden Gate bridge.
Day 3 – Beautiful drive to Half Moon Bay with lunch at Sam’s Chowder House that serves New England style seafood overlooking the Pacific ocean. Then a drive from scenic road Highway 1 to Santa Cruz.
Day 4 – Capitola in Santa Cruz, explore Redwood Train ride along with some awesome Mexican food at “Margaritaville”
Day 5 – 17 Mile Drive to see some of the beautiful California beaches and Monterey town.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have come this far in the story of my life with love and support of my parents, my son Ojas (Instagram: ojas7337), my friends – Pallavi (Instagram: pallavi_wajpe) and Mandar (Instagram: mandarbhome).

Instagram: at_lifedesign

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjali-deswandikar/

Twitter: @design_anjali

Other: https://lnkd.in/gn4r6KVR https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/building-design-teams-that-scale-with-anjali-deswandikar/id1350595015?i=1000581446046 https://www.designwhine.com/anjali-deswandikar-on-womens-day/ https://dna.paris/winner/zoom.php?eid=71-87453-20 https://dna.paris/winner/zoom.php?eid=71-87452-20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-mqqQ7dzNM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUvWweMb8CI

Image Credits
These photos have been taken at Terralogic Solutions Inc. offices at Salt Lake City and San Jose.