From a young age, I had a passion for all things creative, and with the support of my parents, I was steered in the right direction to help grow this passion into what it is today. Throughout secondary school, I did not consider myself very academic. I enjoyed more practical subjects like art, design technology, and I.T. My art teacher could see that I had an eye for photography and digital art, and this was what I chose to do through GCSE and Sixth Form. The Art Department were great during my time at Sixth Form, and they helped to develop so many of the different design skills I have today. 

I continued my creative journey at university by doing Visual Communication, this was a carousel course where I was able to get a taste of different creative routes; Photography, Graphic Design, Illustration and Film. I enjoyed Photography, so I chose this avenue for the remainder of my time at university. I learned so much about Photography and the world of design, however, it became apparent that Photography was no longer for me – the course at university was very much catered to those who wanted to do Fashion, Portrait and Still Life Photography, whereas I liked a more Documentary style of photography. A lot of my final pieces for university ended up being experimental and mixed media based, so I began to learn and teach myself further about Graphic Design. 

Once I left university, I was still teaching myself Graphic and Digital Design as well as looking for a job within the creative industry. My first design job out of university was an internship at a paper company where I was their marketing intern; I had to create brochures, social media posts, assets for their website and even a little bit of photography here and there. It was great to be creating things for the company and seeing it all go live! After this internship finished, I worked for Selfridges doing photo re-touching for their website. There were lots of tight deadlines working here and I learned a lot about design processes. 

My next job was one of the best jobs I have ever had – after Silver of course! I joined a start-up food delivery company as their very first employee and was hired for all things design. This felt like my very first ‘proper job’ and I was thrown in the deep end with a lot of responsibility – but I loved it! During my time there I was able to do so much; initial branding, designs of the food packaging, delivery boxes, stand/freezer designs, social media posts, food photography, a company rebrand and front-end website maintenance. I had an incredibly supportive manager who pushed me to be the best designer and person that I could be, and a lot of my opportunities were due to her really believing in me – I am forever grateful for and to her! 

After this job, I felt extremely fortunate to have such varied experiences under my belt. I got a job at a start-up electrical vehicle (EV) company where my role was more product designer lead. I was responsible for creating the user interface for the EV Charger, I worked very closely with developers to get this bang-on to the design I had also created, and the result was stylish and effective! A highlight from this job was doing something I had never done before – I created the design for the EV Charger. I had done some sketches and 3D models of the design and then worked alongside the Mechanical Engineer it was able to be made properly in AutoCAD and then in real life! It was a great moment seeing the actual unit on the warehouse floor and just being proud of myself for being a part of the journey! 

And now, here I am at Silver. After being an in-house designer for 9-ish years it is great to be working in an agency where work changes and is different from day to day. It is also great to be working with so many talented creative individuals! I feel so fortunate to be where I am today and for the journey, experience, and most importantly the support I have had along the way. 

I am surrounded by strong, hardworking, passionate women. Their drive and ambition to be the best versions of themselves is something that I am and will always aspire to.  

In my career I have been fortunate enough to work for and with women who have championed and challenged me, allowing me to grow, learn and thrive in design and in life. 

I would say the biggest challenge I face is self-doubt and believing that I am not good enough – but the drive to better myself is something that I am consistently practising. 

Some tips from Nisha…

Believe in yourself first and people will believe in you.

You will always be amazing at what you do, no one can ever take that away from you.

Sometimes you just have to wing it and learn along the way…and paired with hard work it’ll be ok!