Hello, I’m Jay – a Design-doer, an amateur diver, exec coach and curator. The work my teams and I have done lives in your pocket, on desktops, in outcomes & jobs-done! In some cases, the experience envelopes you, like airports & conferences. I bring the power and rigour of design to bear on org challenges—to drive innovation & transformation, create products and platforms that
simplify the complex, drive adoption and fuel growth.

Words

Selected interviews, podcasts, conversations, writings and guest posts

“Through his work and Design leadership at Adobe, Flipkart, the VC SAIF Partners, MakeMyTrip + GoIbibo, and ArogyaSetu, Jay has redefined the role and influence of Design in Tech and Business.

As the founder and curator of DesignUp, SE Asia’s largest Design-In-tech Conference, he continues to serve and support communities and causes”

Shiva Viswanathan
CMO+Design Head, catenate.io
Former MD & Exec Creative director,
Ogilvy Digital, SE-Asia

“In a world where everyone celebrates the destination, Jay emphasises the importance of the journey”

Dharmesh Ba
User researcher | insight seeker | story teller

Work

Design output – an interface, an identity, a flow, or an image – is like the tip of an iceberg.

Beneath every singular piece of work are multiple discussions, debates, deep-dives. Points and counter-points, vision and revision. Research and insights. Questions around interoperability. Most of these cannot be shown or shared, not in this format at least.

In these few selected projects, I have been part of those long backstories, and have contributed in myriad ways. Sometimes as a crafts-person, a creative director, a facilitator—and often as a guardian of the vision, investigator of insights and custodian of the user’s voice.

I am deeply grateful to my team-mates across orgs and geographies, my mentors, managers and friends (designers and non-designers alike) who have shaped many of these projects and the trajectory of my career.

Clustering inspiration: Project Kluster
Adobe
2012, India/US
Adobe
The inside-out transformation journey
MakeMyTrip
2017, India
GoMMT Group
Taking the fight to the pandemic
Aarogya Setu
2020, India
Project Heisenberg: Redesigning Flipkart
Design System
2014, India
Flipkart
SE Asia’s “Definitive Design-In-tech conference”
DesignUp 3rd Conference
2018, India
Volunteer driven
Project Nomos
Adobe’s Dev tools
2010, India
Adobe
Configure a car
Peugeot
2000, UK/France
Circle.com/EuroRSCG Circle
Reinventing the Sun
Rebranding Sun Resorts, Hotels & Casinos
1999, Mauritius
Circus
Flame of the forest, explorations
Bengaluru Airport (now KIAL)
2008, India
Ray+Keshavan
Outside the bowl: freeing the Goldfish
Goldfish Bank goes online
2000, UK
Circle.com/EuroRSCG Circle
The state of design in Tech, in India & SE Asia
DesignUp Deconstruct Report
2019, India/SE Asia
DesignUp
The flower & the humming bird
Identity & wayfinding for Bengaluru Airport (now KIAL)
2008, India
Ray+Keshavan
Co-founding the foundry – an agency of our own
IdeasFoundry
2006, Manchester UK
IdeasFoundry
Putting the ‘my’ back into MakeMyTrip
MakeMyTrip’s Cosmos Design System
2017, India
GoMMT Group
Making dense information accessible
MakeMyTrip’s Cosmos Design System across B2C & B2B
2018, India
GoMMT Group
Similar but not the same
MakeMyTrip’s transactional vs immersive flows
2018, India
GoMMT Group
The startup bug bites again
Rating and reviewing conferences with attnd
2014-15, US/india
ConfIQ
Flows and reflows
Rating and reviewing conferences with attnd
2014-15, US/india
ConfIQ
Celebrating India’s 50th year of Independence
Identity for GoI & the people of India
1997, India
Artistree O&M
India’s first Design Hackathon
Webdesign International Festival
2008, India/France
WIF & TheBrandUnion/R+K
Making CRM systems great again
Meridian
2005, India/Ireland
Meridian
Branding a Conference
D2B – Design2Business
2004, UK/China
University of Salford
“Amongst the world’s most exciting Design events” Quartz.com
DesignUp 2nd Conference
2017, India
Volunteer driven
Accelerated product design & dev – V7 in week 4
Aarogya Setu
2020, India
Unifying across products & platforms
Adobe’s Spectrum Design System
2010, US/EU/India
Sprinting to a system – 10.5 weeks to a complete library
Aarogya Setu’s Design System
2020, India
Annual Report
Sun Resorts, Hotels & Casinos
1999, Mauritius
Circus
“Shining a light to give new perspectives”
DesignUp Deconstruct Report
2019, India/SE Asia
Volunteer driven
Giving India’s airports a face
Delhi International Airport
2008, India
Ray+Keshavan
Simplifying the making of Design systems
Project Qumulusly, Adobe
2013, India/US
Adobe
Giving India’s airports a face
Bengaluru Airport (now KIAL)
2008, India
The ‘millennium’ calendar
Grays
2000, Mauritius/France
Circus
The original absolutejd.com
ActionScript, HTML and Verdana all via dial-up internet
1999, Mauritius

“Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you
than answers you cannot question.”

Yuval Noah Harari
21 Lessons for the 21st Century