Engaging with a feminist city through design
A Career Moment with Nilanjana Mannarprayil
Everyone’s career matters. From those in the early stages, to those with a longer story.
We all have a tale to tell, and often there are moments that just have some special meaning or consequence.
In this series we ask people about a career moment and how this influenced, even in small ways, their career or learning. It’s not about a life story or a documentary — it’s a moment.
Using a moment allows early career as well as those with established careers to contribute. Indeed, hearing about moments from early career folk is highly informative in understanding the thinking of those just starting out — it helps us see the world through the lens of youth.
This series makes no assumptions about stage or when a ‘career’ started or career breaks/changes. It makes no assumptions about success.
The moment can be anything. An opportunity or an act of kindness or support; an activity or project; hearing a talk or reading a book; seeing someone from afar yet sensing a role model…
...and now a Career Moment with Nilanjana Mannarprayil
Nilanjana is in the early stages of her career. She is a speculative designer studying product design at the Glasgow School of Art, and by engaging with and studying different cultures, she also calls herself a future culture creator. By using uncertainty to her advantage, Nilanjana designs her products and experiences to demystify the future and provide structure for positive experiences. She also fosters understanding and education through design by making research more accessible to the public.
Hello Nilanjana, thank you for agreeing to share your career moment and for being so open. I wonder if you could briefly share your chosen moment.
My chosen moment is engaging with a feminist city through design. I had the chance to help design a magazine called ‘Feminism & the City’ for Gender Responsive Resilience and Intersectionality with Policy and Practice (GRRIPP) by University College London. This opportunity helped me engage with a feminist city by showcasing multiple regional, disciplinary, and personal perspectives.
How did you get involved?
I worked on a small magazine in 2020, “Theorising from the Overlooked City”, with Hanna Ruszczyk, one of the thematic leads at GRRIPP. She referred me to work on this project, as the previous magazine was well received.
What was your role?
My role was to design a magazine to share photography, poems, reflections, and theoretical considerations of feminism and the city from a set of events held in November 2021 and January 2022: “Engaging with the Feminist City: How does a feminist city present itself in different spaces and places?”.
Did working on this magazine change how you think or work in the future?
This magazine changed how I viewed the relationship between designers and their clients. Unlike other projects where I was given a task and expected to deliver with no room for exploration and thinking, the group at GRRIPP and UCL included me in the development of the key themes and ideas behind the magazine and its ideation beyond, helping me create work that was collaborative and exciting. I was involved in meetings and was given a chance to input feedback on their ideas.
Did you modify your design approach or style whilst interacting with the material?
I had much freedom to design the magazine, but since it was an academic piece of around 200 pages, I reserved a few of my eccentric ideas for it to be an easy read.
Were there any design elements that you felt highlighted, added value to the importance or meaning of the topic and were enhanced by the designs?
My design elements add value to the debate around feminism and the city. We had co-designed the magazine to be read in multiple ways: a pathway for concepts, another for themes, and a third for representation. This idea stemmed from the magazine’s ethos of rejecting universality to problem-solving and embracing plurality in solutions.
What did you learn from this experience?
Through this magazine, I learnt how to implement and push my creative direction and emphasised the need for designed products. By learning how to collaborate with non-designers in a professional setting, I got better at presenting my ideas and being confident in my abilities.
What has changed because of this career moment?
We often say that we are feminists, but we don’t make an effort to think about the ways in which these values and ideas can be implemented or change how we view our work or in life itself. It’s about questioning and rethinking your presumptions. This magazine looked at how feminism intersects with urban development and planning, analysing the current discourse and looking critically even to reach the idea that perhaps a feminist city is not what we want. Through interacting with this material, I have had the opportunity to learn and build on my limited and linear ideas. This moment was an eye-opening experience and definitely the project’s highlight.
Do you have one piece of career advice for others?
Push the boundaries of your creativity, and you may surprise yourself! By looking beyond font and colours to the experience of flipping through the magazine, I brought my learnings from product design and innovation into this task which required only graphic design. I was pleased with the result, which was well received by the team, so much so that they decided to print the digital magazine to take to a United Nations Development Programme Conference.
And finally, we have a couple of quick-fire questions for you.
What do you value — these are something you aim for and hopefully bring to any role.
I want to bring joy, curiosity, collaboration, and empathetic design.
Emerging skills. Which emerging skill sets for working and living would you prioritise.
Social intelligence; Multi-level collaboration; Design mindset; Adaptability
You can find out more about Nilanjana here:
Nilanjana on LinkedIn
Website: Five Blue Elephants
