About – Swathi Kirthyvasan

Hello there! 👋

I am Swathi, a computer science graduate turned graphic designer turned UX and Product Designer, Content Writer and Social Media Manager.

As someone who has been in the field almost 8 years, I have seen a lot and worked a lot harder. And have loved every minute of it.

I am a hyper-enthusiastic designer who won’t just add design value to any team – I’ll be a cheerleader, knowledge-sharer and mentor to the entire team.

I like to be entirely hands on from the beginning and on every project, enthusiastic of every little opportunity that comes my way and constantly look at learning and improving my skills. You can find me hunting down articles, blogs, trends & tools every single day to keep myself abreast of what’s happening in the field every single day.

I jump between design, content writing, social media management (I did manage the social media for Bengaluru Raptors, a team part of the Premier Badminton League) and UX writing (taking a course for this) at any time. I love to dabble, as you can see.

That juggling between tasks and the fact that no 2 days at work are the same – that’s something I love about my job and also what gets me going on a Monday morning.

Skills that pay the bills

And continue to evolve as I explore and hunt down more that add value to who I am as a designer.

Tools & Tech

Design: Adobe Master Suite, Figma, Sketch, Principle, Moqups, InVision, Procreate, Balsamiq, Lucid Chart, Miro, JustinMind, Canva, Rotato, WebFlow (basics)

Project Management: Jira, Trello, Sheets, Asana

Code: HTML, CSS, Jasvascript (basics)

Subject

Strategy:  Identity, strategy, voice, content, marketing, social, branding, communication  

Design: Prototyping, Wireframing, Design research, Process Flows, Storyboards, UI Design, Visual Design, Information Architecture, Design Systems

CRM: Salesforce

CMS: WordPress, Magento

Methodologies: Design Thinking, Agile, Waterfall

General Skills

Communication – Written and Oral, People Management, Teaching, Mentoring and Coaching, Leadership, Time Management, Project management, Feedback, Design critique, Consulting

Current Certifications 🤩 (with a few more in the pipeline)

I run, own and work on cool products too 😎

And some other things too 💪

Apart from work, I am also an artist, illustrator, mentor and teacher. These are some of the things I do –

Create fun, vibrant art pieces using multiple mediums and styles. Mandalas, watercolours and paper art are my loves at the moment.
Collaborate with exciting brands for creating art pieces, digital assets and conducting sessions.
Take a one-on-one or group art and painting workshops.
Mentor young and transitioning UX designers.
Attend/Volunteer design and networking events.
Beta test business ideas that I plan to set up in the future. I make endless lists of ideas too.
Go for a walk/run to clear the mind when everything gets too overwhelming.
Cooking and baking – I find the it therapeutic. I make a mean hummus, pasta, north indian food and a vegetable biryani!
Photography – still amateur, I keep learning whenever I can.

It does sound like I do too many things – and I get asked the “How do you balance work and life with all this?” question many a times. The answer to that – I love doing all of them and the fact that I am blessed to having a creative side both personally and professionally and an equally supportive community that encourages me to continue pursuing all these – is what keeps me going.

Do what you love, love what you do, isn’t it?