Like many, I took the usual route - engineering, only to realise it wasn’t for me. But my journey didn’t start with this recent UI/UX trend; it BEGAN WITH CINEMA

Growing up in a village with no theatre, my only access to films was TV. The nearest theatre was 30 minutes away, and I rarely got to go. But every time we passed by, I had just five seconds to glimpse the posters. Over time, I loved the posters more than the movies and even started collecting them.

In 2015, I moved to Chennai for college and finally watched films every week. Around this time, I discovered the PicsArt app, experimented with photo manipulation, and eventually got my hands on Photoshop. Joining a variety show team pushed me into video editing and After Effects, where I met people just as obsessed with cinema. Designing posters for sports events and NSS initiatives showed me its power to create impact.

By 2019, with four backlogs and relatives questioning my future, I was lost - until a LinkedIn post about graphic design jobs sparked a thought: Can I turn this into a career? Two weeks later, I landed an internship at Uurukadai, which became my first full-time design role.

Pinterest shaped my design taste, but by 2020, burnout hit. Chasing uniqueness in every poster drained me, and parental pressure to pursue a master’s in engineering made me step away from design for two years.

On June 22, 2022, I lost an engineering job interview and finally saw it clearly—I was never meant for engineering. Sitting on the college ground, I made a decision: design is the only path I won’t regret, even if I fail. I rebuilt my portfolio and landed a job at Payo in a week.

Curious about what’s beyond graphic design, I discovered UI/UX. At Payo, I took on UI projects, upskilled at Growth School, and within six months, secured a role at BetterPlace. The past two years have been incredible—working on impactful projects for blue-collar workers and shaping experiences that matter.