Interview with Aadarsh Santosh, Graphic Designer & Digital Designer at Son&Sons: Lovers Magazine by Spaces

Aadarsh is a designer based in Atlanta. Raised in Dubai he graduated as a graphic designer from SCAD Atlanta in 2021, his work consists of a variety of mediums ranging from print to digital based designs.

Atlanta, United States • August 27, 2024

What led you into design?

Design has always been there for me. I was an artsy kid since middle school, my parents had me in various art classes like oil painting, drawing, caricature etc. so that sort of lead me to this path. Math and science were never subjects that intrigued me as much. Instead, I spent my time doodling in the textbooks and oftentimes daydreaming. My curiosity peaked whenever I used to see old-school Bollywood movie posters with the large type and colorful imagery, often mixing Western style with Indian.

This led me to look at commercials and poster designs and the interest just kept building up. I graduated high school around 2017 and moved to Atlanta to study Graphic design in SCAD. Being in an environment with various other creatives got me very intrigued into design and I started to branch out and try to learn as much from other fields like motion, animation, UI/UX & photography. Graduating from SCAD was a bittersweet feeling but now I’ve landed a job at this amazing spot called Son&Sons where there’s so much creativity and collaboration in design, it’s fun.

What does a typical day look like?

I’m currently trying to figure out my routine but so far this one works best for now. I start my day by getting up at 6AM and head to the gym for an hour or so. After that I like to brew some coffee, cook up some breakfast and check my calendar for the day then I head out for work. Since we’re back to in-office work, I like to leave early to beat the traffic. For us, work starts at around 9am, from there it's stand-ups in the morning leading to design updates on projects, client meetings, chat & tacos for lunch, which is an office must, and wrapping it all up around 5:30pm.

After work, I try not to relax too much since I get into a habit of just slacking around, but I try to catch up with some news or YouTube videos related to design or tech if not that then it's just an hour of deep video gaming.

What's your workstation setup?

Where do you go to get inspired?

I love and appreciate cities. Having grown up in a city, I always love to take inspiration from what’s around me and see how design is portrayed in these large landscapes. I've visited New York every now and then and am constantly inspired by that chaotic city, the old signage designs, the type used in restaurants in Chinatown or even the MTA. There’s so much beauty around, especially with both the old and the new mixed in with the diverse forms of cultures, it’s great. And whenever I get the chance to visit home, I get to re-live my childhood experiences but with a greater sense of appreciation for the designs when it comes to my favorite snacks and spots we used to hang out in. Even when looking at the architecture, I feel inspired to incorporate those elements into the design.

What product have you recently seen that made you think this is great design?

I just recently saw a talk by one of the designers from Apple talking about the CarPlay design during WWDC24 and thought that that’s some great design. I really liked how a single typeface was used throughout every single screen design for the car and how the smaller details were designed such as the iconography to car alerts. I think Apple did a great job in designing an iPhone for the whole car. Hopefully, I get to experience it as well. I have to add another thing that I’ve noticed is the minute details they put into the software designs such as volume interaction in the new OS, it’s crazy to me I love it.

What pieces of work are you most proud of?

With the team at Sons we had built out a restaurant identity for a client and I was in charge of building out the website which is my proudest project, the way of using brand assets to create a site that’s welcoming and yet keeps that rustic Italian look was a concept that I wanted to run with. The team did so well with this and I’m proud of the work we put out there.

What design challenges do you face at your company?

Working together in a creative team sometimes puts me in this area of not being able to produce the best work that I wish to input, that’s the most challenging thing for me. And sometimes having self-doubt about the work I pitch in with. That’s probably one of the most infuriating challenges, but it’s also a challenge I take upon myself to make the work I put out there better and stronger with a positive outlook.

What music do you listen to while designing?

Any advice for ambitious designers?

Don’t be afraid to try something new, design is so fun and I feel like once a person finds something they stick with it so I would say try to get out of that zone and just try everything design has to offer! Take from what’s around you, sometimes people tend to be too focused on just essential design elements, that they miss that design is literally all around them.