What would I modify: Anoushka Khandwala
Graphic designer, writer and educator Anoushka Khandwala is a voice of reason for the diversity problem of the design industry. In 2018, while still studying at Central Saint Martins, she wrote a piece for Creative Review about the lack of women with color in design. In many cases, after two years, the conversation is still just a conversation.
Through her writing, Khandwala continues to reveal the oppression tendencies in the industry and reveals a new perspective on how we can decolonize them – and why it is important that we do so. She also gives lectures on the subject, including a recent online event held in June when she spoke to the multidisciplinary creative Sunny Dolat at the Virtual Design Festival.
Khandwala often produces graphics to accompany her writing and has created eye-catching designs and illustrations for clients such as Notting Hill Carnival and Gigwise. While work continued during the pandemic, Lockdown raised questions about its work-life balance and whether we need to adjust our work patterns in the future.
While Lockdown gave her the opportunity to think about how she wanted to work in the future, it was also a time for the wider industry to examine herself and her history of exclusion. In particular, recent protests against Black Lives Matter around the world have plunged the design industry into an existential crisis, forcing it to recognize the issues that Khandwala, like many others, has been addressing for years.
Here she talks to us about the problem of inaccessibility in design and education, why creatives don't just have to create graphics for Instagram to become anti-racist, and whether this unique point really represents a turning point for the industry.