Design, Dehradoon & my Nani
How my childhood influences my design!
Design is storytelling and all stories start somewhere, right? Well, my starts in Dehradoon. Little Ashima, jumping around, surrounded by litchee trees. My journey as a designer has been long and is ongoing. But a lot of my design sensibilities have been shaped by the childhood I had.
My Nani was an artist of her own. With tattoos all over her arms, she was the only one who liked my tattoos too, and defended me in front of my dad. She used to knit these symmetric-patterned sweaters with a contrasting color palette and I was her first model. Whenever I wore a sweater made by her, I was the topic of conversation amongst aunties in my colony. We had women from our neighborhood borrow my sweaters so they could copy the designs. My mother used to spend hours teaching them how to knit sweaters just like my Nani. No one ever got it right. The colors she used were bright and fun, yellow pineapples on a blue base and red watermelons on a brown. I distinctly remember she made this off-white sweater with pink, yellow, and green lines and waves across it. That was my favorite one or at least that was the only one that I could bear to wear. I used to feel like a freak back then. I hated wearing the sweaters she made for me because that made me think that we were poor. I never understood why my mother could not buy me sweaters like other kids. It also made people notice me and that made me awkward. But the stack of sweaters in my almirah made by her tells a different story now.
This was passed on to my mother. From stitching tops for me to making tin paintings for our house, she did it all. My mother mostly liked painting scenes from Ramayan and Mahabharata. I used to watch her do oil paintings and tin paintings and she taught me everything she knew, from using the brushes correctly to the basic anatomy of humans. I learned oil paintings from her. She not only taught me how to but also gave me her brushes, canvases, stand, and set of paints to get me started.
I don’t have a degree in design YET. I am an economics graduate and was working in finance before I decided to switch to design (the best decision I ever made, no matter how tough it is!). I started my journey in design during covid (2021) as an illustrator. Slowly I switched to graphic design. While the companies I worked for can stay in my resume, what I have realized so far is that my personal style and the kind of art and design I enjoy making have been widely influenced by what I saw at home. The aesthetics my Nani and mother have, and even my childhood days spent in Dehradoon. Dehradoon summer was a different energy, surrounded by litchee trees, the fragrance overpowered everything. The mountain views and the Mussoorie light sparkling from my balcony-that’s the aesthetic you will see in my work. If you ever see my work on Instagram (@ashimasinghhh), you’ll see bright colors splattered across a dark sky, like the Mussoorie lights, and a starry sky from my balcony. I like my electric blues and hot pinks on black, with hints of yellow and green.
While I have tried a white base, it doesn’t speak to me. It’s not something I enjoy, so hopefully I have found my personal style. And someday you’ll see it everywhere!
This first one might be less technical and more story but stay tuned because I plan on talking more about things design, how I learn about the technicalities, and my ongoing journey into product design. Cheers!
