Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sara Iqbal. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Sara, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
My mission is to advocate for Creativity and Creatives. Their open mindset readily embraces diversity and multiple cultures around them.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m the owner and Creative Director of Graphic Matters, a full-service design practice based in Houston, TX. I specialize in strategic brand design and digital experiences for small businesses and non-profit organizations. The services include Identity systems, digital products, web design, sales and client communications collateral, copywriting, digital and social media marketing. My customer brief is usually an hour-long conversation over the phone, understanding the business challenges and competitors. I help my clients understand the “Why” behind their decision, so we can objectively carry the design process forward. They appreciate my analytical approach to their briefs and the extra mile I go to offer multiple perspectives and solutions in the proposal. Resulting artifacts are complex concepts simplified into engaging visual stories and digital experiences that evoke emotion and motivate action.
With a BFA in Graphic Communications from the University of Houston, I began my career in 2000 as a motion designer. Then quickly pivoted towards branding and learned web design and development, UXUI, and Social Media Marketing to add various tools to my portfolio. After just 3 years of working as an in-house designer for a bank and then briefly at an agency, I became a solopreneur. Over 20 years, my role has evolved from creating a craft to strategically designing mindful experiences and advocating for Design as a tool to solve complex problems.
I’m also co-founder of Indus Arts Council (IAC), a non-profit organization fostering a cross-cultural exchange between the Pakistani diaspora and the diverse communities in the U.S. through arts, Urdu classes, immersive cultural events, films, and theater. IAC’s brand is “bold & loud.” As a Pakistani American who values my traditions and culture, I’m compelled to share my heritage and experiences with my American-born children, so they feel proud of their heritage.
As AIGA Houston’s board member and Design Advocacy Director, I give back to my design community by identifying resources and tools that advocate for the designer’s role, promote the value of creative work, and encourage social awareness and design-driven change.
—- how you got into your industry / business / discipline / craft etc, what type of products/services/creative works you provide, what problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others. —-
I come from a family of artists in Pakistan who’s known for Chughtai Art. My great grandfather, Ustad MiraN Baskh, taught art as Vice Principal of Mayo College of Arts in Lahore, now known as “National College of Arts Lahore.” My great uncle M. Abdul Rehman Chughtai was among the well-known contemporary artists of Lahore in the 1900s. He developed a style of watercolor paintings in flat perspective, known as the Chughtai Art. I was destined to follow in their footsteps as an artist or a Designer.
I drew all the time as a child. I was just 8 when I impressed my mother immensely with my drawing of a little Chinese girl against a cherry blossom tree, which I had copied off a talcum powder tin. It was complete with highlights, shadows, and line contrast using my no.2 pencil. She proudly showed the drawing to my paternal uncle, an artist, who was equally pleased to see an emerging artist in me.
I was 17 and had just finished highschool in Pakistan when the family moved to the U.S. I wanted to pursue Textile Design as my profession. The one year we lived in New York exposed me to a new world of independence and possibilities. I was enamored by the Fashion Institute of Design but was quite intimidated by a portfolio submission for admission. That and moving to Texas changed my career path. None of the 4-year colleges in Texas offer Textile or Fashion Design. A vocational school was not an option for me. I chose to study Graphic Communications as my second choice and enrolled in University of Houston’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program. I was curious about art’s application for commercial and corporate communications.
—- What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.—-
I believe in Good Design and Design for Good. I’ve looked at every client interaction as an opportunity to grapple with new challenges, empathize with the affected, and apply the force of Design as a creator of positive change. I looked at my own challenges as a double minority when I moved to the U.S., whose identity shifted from a highly cultured young Pakistani woman to a migrant from a third-world country. My family’s legacy and art background held no significance to my new friends and colleagues in the U.S. because they had never heard of Chughtai Art.
Art was appreciated all around me as I was growing up in Pakistan. My uncles played tabla, harmonium, and sitar. My sitar lessons were cut short because of our migration. My extracurricular activity throughout middle and high school was art and theater. I reveled in English and Urdu literature, enjoyed prose and poetry in both languages, and even took to Punjabi poetry. Punjabi is one of the four regional languages spoken in Pakistan and in our family among elders. An 80s fan, I listened to American pop and hard metal as well as Pakistani pop, classical music, ghazals, and qawwali. My family celebrated religious and cultural traditions equally. Kite festival in spring would be like a family reunion in our house, and we’d be stumbling over the giant paper kites sprawled around our verandah and lined up against its walls. Summer vacations would be spent in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where my father worked for the American Embassy. He delighted in Arab music, and we would avidly watch Transformers dubbed in Arabic as “Grendizer.” Both my Pakistani parents spoke fluid Arabic, and I loved celebrating Eid there. We exchanged delectable sweets with family and friends—baklava and sugar-covered almonds in white, gold, and silver, wrapped in luxuriously designed packaging. I would then crave the spicy chicken tikka, or roasted corn rubbed with chili and lime juice on our return to Pakistan at the end of summer. So when my father decided to retire and live in America, we bravely acquired our new identity, but I couldn’t part with the traditions and heritage I had grown up with.
In 2012 when my younger son was 2, my sister, my husband, and I, equally passionate about the Pakistani culture and arts, decided to form an organization that would promote the Pakistani culture through the arts, Urdu language, theater, and film. I wanted to recreate my cultural experiences growing up in Pakistan and manifest them into visual and performing art events, so my American children and the diverse communities around us could appreciate a new culture and find connections in a fun way. We promised to bring unique immersive experiences to celebrate the customs and crafts combined with fashion and food. My passion found a purpose.
Over the past 12 years, our organization, Indus Arts Council, has produced several immersive cultural experiences in the heart of Houston’s Art and Warehouse Districts. Diverse communities have enjoyed the culture of tea and truck art, craft stations, ethnic fashion shows, and pop-up performances. Urdu language summer camps are another theme-based activity that attracts a distinct audience who love a new language or seek to reinforce their heritage language amongst their American-born children. The language is taught in context through learning about a tradition such as “Putli Tamasha” (puppet show) or a pop art form such as Truck Art. Through our Youtube channel, we share visual stories of Pakistani creatives in the U.S. All the IAC programs emphasize the narrative that art builds bridges by revealing connections between diverse communities. IAC is creating a cross-cultural exchange with other communities through the power of art and Design. It promotes empathy for each other and keeps the growing Pakistani diaspora connected with its heritage.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My mission is to help creatives feel confident about their work, their craft, their ideas and passion. While I always excelled academically, many times during my college and career life, I was not able to identify or avail opportunities that seemed readily available to others. Even though an extrovert and opinionated, I grew up naive and sheltered until I graduated from college. My enthusiasm and curiosity helped me navigate a different educational system and a brand new work environment in the U.S. It wasn’t until I began working as a Graphic Designer that I realized that the perception of the Design discipline and its value isn’t the same for the decision makers steering its direction. It’s a challenge, not unlike my own identity shift. Design is only venerated in the creative community but has little value for others due to lack of knowledge and awareness.
23 years later, as a professional Creative, I still notice the gaps between the perception of the Design discipline and the reality of Design careers when I speak to recruiters in the industry or see the disconnected Career & Technology curriculums taught in middle and high schools for Design classes. I used the Design Thinking process and Design as a strategic force to bring awareness of my culture and heritage, and the same knowledge can elevate young minds. I recognized the opportunity to pursue my idea as the AIGA Houston Design Advocacy Director. My committee has developed and taught Design Thinking 101 labs at HISD’s Lanier Middle School and Baylor College of Medicine Academy at Ryan in Houston’s Greater Third Ward area. Teaching the Design Thinking process to middle and high school students before introducing the tools of the craft develops critical thinking skills. It builds confidence in the solutions drawn from empathizing with the communities in a cultural context.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
I wish I had taken Business Administration as my minor instead of Art History while studying Graphic Communications in college. Learning about the business of a Discipline grants strategic vision and helps one package it as a holistic solution. AIGA offers tremendous resources to support design students and seasoned Design professionals such as certificates for creatives, professional and executive education, as well as design competitions. See here: https://www.aiga.org/
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mygraphicmatters.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mygraphicmatters
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saraiqbal/