Hello!
I'm Sakina Abbas — a Multidisciplinary Designer. And for as long as I can remember, I've believed that design at its best leaves a mark. Not on the wall. On the person.
There was a little girl who painted the sky purple and cows red — not out of ignorance, but out of conviction. Her drawing teacher never corrected her. She never forced her to see the world for what it has to be. Instead, she let her make it her own.
That little girl was me. And that freedom to see differently, to feel first, to make it your own — quietly became the foundation of everything I do.
I've lived and breathed art since I was that little girl, and making a career in design was the ultimate canvas upgrade.
Because design, to me, isn't merely about making things look good.
It's about curating an experience that leaves you with a souvenir
Something that stays with you long after the work is done,
something that feels unmistakably like you.
My Journey
It started at sixteen. Still finding my footing in the world of Adobe, still learning what every tool could do — and yet, there I was, making album art for a friend who made music. One project turned into many, each one pulling me deeper.
I chased that feeling.
That chase eventually led me to Pearl Academy, where I landed a 2.5 lakh scholarship. In the three years I spent there, design thinking was quietly imbibed into everything I did. With every module, I learnt that a pesky habit of asking why — and a thousand seemingly silly questions — isn't an inconvenience. It's actually the whole job.
For my final year, I moved to Torrens University in Australia — which, thanks to the pandemic, happened entirely online. What could have felt like a limitation turned into its own quiet lesson: that learning has no boundaries, not even calamities.
A B.Des degree later, curiosity still wouldn't let me sit still. So I followed it into UX design through an advanced programme at IIT Guwahati — because I'd realised that UX isn't just about curating an experience for a website or an app.
An experience is an experience, online or offline. And understanding how people move through things felt like the natural next layer of everything I'd been building all along.
These days, in an era where AI is reshaping what creativity even means, you'll find me at bootcamps and masterclasses absorbing new tools and workflows with what I can only describe as barely-contained nerdiness.
Learning is the only constant — and honestly, it's also just who I am.
The Work
The range of what I've worked on still surprises me sometimes.
From building brand identities for companies like Padah — partnered with the likes of GitHub and Atlassian — to investor pitch decks that have landed in rooms at Google, JioHotstar, District and more.
From crafting director's treatments for brands like L'Oréal, Garnier, and Amazon, to fan experiences for F1 and IPL screenings in partnership with Kingfisher, Heineken, and FanCode.
From book covers to brand revamps, and everything quietly in between.
The range isn't accidental. It's what happens when you follow the brief wherever it leads.
My Design Philosophy
Anyone can make something that looks pretty. But pretty without purpose is just decoration — and decoration doesn't solve problems, shift perspectives, or move people.
Design, at its best, is a feeling engineered with intention. It should make someone stop, think, and sometimes, without quite knowing why, feel understood.
That's the only kind of design I know how to make.
A big cup of chai, a blank canvas, and a brief that teases my brain just enough to keep me up at night —
that's all I really need.
Contact
The best work I've ever done started with someone saying — I have an idea.