We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nasheen Jahan Nasir. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nasheen Jahan below.

Nasheen Jahan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I have been working as a full-time freelance multi-disciplinary designer for over a year and yes it is possible to be independent with a creative career.

It began with Covid. I had just shifted from architecture to an animation design studio. After March 2020, I was forced to stay at home and the company I was working for was not in a stable state. So I had to leave and start my own practice even though I was just starting out as a designer. Believe me, it was extremely scary and I was unsure of my career trajectory. So in that anxious covid lockdown I started practicing my craft and shared it online. I have always taken social media as a ground for regular practice and never went after likes and validation from strangers. I knew I was here for the long term and not quick Instagram fame. I was always exploring different mediums and styles to find out my own. In the meanwhile, I kept contact with my former colleagues and regularly worked with them on small projects. I think building a strong friendship with my fellow designers was one of the best decisions. I kept learning from them and also building my freelance resume. Regularly updating all my social media designer accounts with my recent works brought more clients until I did not need to depend on my senior colleagues for freelance projects.

Visual design is a very vast field and the scope of work is unlimited. Since I was exploring different design fields and styles during those years in order to be sure of what I really wanted to do, I do not think there were any shortcuts I could have taken.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I’m Nasheen and I’m a multidisciplinary designer based in Bangladesh but working globally.

While studying architecture I developed a passion for layout design, data visualization and illustrations. After working at an architectural studio I realized I wanted to expand my visual design skills and experience so I shifted to an animation studio as a background designer. There I explored my skills and scopes in visual development, motion design, illustration and visual identity, As I affirmed my love for illustration and visual identity I knew that I didn’t want to limit myself to just one specific category of the design field. Now I work independently as a designer and illustrator working with local and international clients on a variety of projects such as editorials, branding, publishing, motion, architectural presentations as well as experiential graphic design.

I believe design has the power to connect to people both physically and emotionally and it can create a kinder, more sensitive and inclusive world. With my work, I want to create meaningful stories and experiences that people can relate to and help them understand one another in this diverse multicultural world. I’m also passionate about depicting Bangladeshi urban scenes and the cultural identities of south Asian cities and their people.

In the future, I hope to research how we can adopt more interdisciplinary design approaches by intersecting art, architecture, animation and visual design in order to create human-sensitive design solutions.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I was thinking about leaving my full-time job as an architect I did not even know which creative field I should move to. All I knew was that I loved illustration and information design and wanted to work extensively to develop those skills. That was the time when I had to do self-assessment and planning. In my country, creative jobs are scarce and often not secure. Since I had experience in 3d visualization and space design and I had previously done environment art I opted to move to an animation studio as a visual development artist instead of a graphic design job. I wanted to learn the pipeline of a digital marketing and animation studio where I’d get to learn how stories are created from rough storyboards to compositing full video with voiceover. This knowledge helped me later to direct creative projects successfully. So pivoting in a career is okay but needs careful consideration and self-awareness.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy to grow clientele nowadays is to utilize digital platforms. There are specific websites for different creatives but the most common ones that clients use for design projects are Behance and Instagram. So the first step for any starting designer is to study the industry and their own skillsets then list down potential clients and their recent works that match their skillset. Creating many personal projects with meaningful stories to target the audience is the second step. The third would be to have your own website and create a network of like-minded professionals.

I regularly update all of my social media platforms and also design different presentation techniques for different websites. It is time-consuming but it is effective. For example, if Instagram, Facebook and dribble would be personal blogs sharing places for only the finished product, Behance would be the place to show rough ideas and options done in the initial stages. Behance is mostly used by professionals who work in the industry so showing the developmental stage is beneficial. Youtube is also an excellent platform to share your own story and voice. Another strategy that has personally worked for me is to not have a niche category of work. Since I’m a multidisciplinary designer I find my clients from multiple fields for different purposes.

So overall, having an original personal brand story with a strong design style that can be used in different fields is best to have a continuous flow of new clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.imaginasheen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imaginasheen
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nasheen-jahan-nasir-44823319b/
• Other: https://www.behance.net/imaginnasheenart

Image Credits
Image number three (lake side wall) picture credit goes to Urban Co.Re The rest of the images are sole properties of Nasheen Jahan Nasir