Aarman Roy began his journey in engineering before switching to design, inspired by a rare Japanese graphic design exhibition and a friend’s scholarship success. A self-taught creative with roots in drawing and Photoshop, Aarman has worked with Apple Music, Nike, and Amazon. Based in New York, he believes in instinctive creativity, fun, and challenging traditional design norms.
Can you tell us a little about your first few steps in your career. Was there a moment or experience when you realised this was what you'd do as a career?
I started out in a career that wasn't design at all, I started off in engineering college in India but midway I decided to switch to design because I enjoyed doing it so much. There are two moments that led me to this decision: I was at a pretty rare exhibition (for Delhi at that time) of Japanese graphic design posters from the 70s and 80s and that BLEW my mind. I was oh shit, people make this? That left a huge imprint on me.
The second instance would be a friend of mine getting into design school on a scholarship, and that inspired me to shoot my shot as well. Of course I had the support of so many people who encouraged me and that's why I am where I am.
During design school in NYC (I went to School of Visual Arts), I co-founded an online magazine in India, called Akademi Mag, which has ceased operations. Then I interned at Apple Music, freelanced for a variety of clients like Nike and Spotify (amongst others), and then started my real design job at Sunday Afternoon which is based out of NYC. I moved onto Mojo Supermarket, Supergood and Amazon since then.
If I had to really back, I had a penchant for drawing as a kid and a copy of Adobe Photoshop from my cousin (a motion designer in the early 2010s in India, wayyyy ahead of his time!) I began fooling around and having so much fun. It's a similiar story to many self taught designers!
What lessons from your career have most shaped your style and approach?
Oh, there are so many! A few positive and a few negative. I'm going to list them out of order as it comes to me:
- Design and it's "success" is fundamentally shaped by skill, luck, timing and external factors. There's also a time component — if it's really good it will find a way to stick around, or people will remember it, imitate it/pay homage to it. And if it's a blowout success for the first two weeks, it could very well go into obscurity and nobody really cares later (has happened to me). How do you know which one stands out? You can't haha.
- Exploring new ways of working has always been riveting for me, and I have a healthy respect for the old school way of doing things because most of the amazing design that we fawn over came out of an era of pencils, paper and drafting tables. Grid systems came out of pure experimentation using rules, pencils, compass etc, the printing press existed for hundreds of years without computers, so on and so forth. So in my opinion if you know how to utilize physical mediums, you can come up with very unique solutions than just aping what's trending on X/Arena/Pinterest for example.
- There is a slight disconnect with reality when you're designing. I've seen it play out in unexpected ways: brand guidelines that are supposed to help with efficiency and consistency actual create more roadblocks than solutions. It's easy to fixate and run around circles to check if there is 100% adherence to the brand style, but you also shut down many creative opportunities that might have an outsized impact. When you're only designing on screens, and not seeing how your design decisions actually affect people in unexpected ways how are you supposed to calibrate until it's too late?
- Since there is usually very few markers that point out if an idea is good or bad except for after the fact, maybe the solution is not have mammothian design efforts and just solve problems as it comes, with certain anchors of course. I feel like you need a few things: a good logo, decent typeface and colours. Then figure it out as you go. Companies do that anyway, only issue is you can't have a blowout announcement, but I wager the solution will be ten times as robust.
- There's a fundamental incentive misalignment and that's only because design is a service based business — and nor is risk shared equally. Risk for the designer looks like not losing a client or a business, but risk for the company has a whole set of complicated factors that the designer is not exposed to. How is one supposed to design without a stake in something, when the same fires don't burn underneath you? I've been part of more than 3 projects where it has evaporated into thin air because of business shifts of the brand, and if we are supposed to help the business, why weren't we given the opportunity to? That made me question that premise forever.
- Since there is a limit to theorizing and trying to find the right answer, the best way to do it to just make something awesome and instinctively in the moment. The visual medium is beautiful in the sense that it's subjective. So why not lean into it, instead of trying to create a scientific framework around something that is not? Everyone loves order, designers almost pathologically so — sometimes it's okay to let loose. Of course it ultimately depends on if the client picks it, it's easier on the soul to show ideas that are not overproduced and canned on someone's whim.
A combination of all of this has made me question the validity of brand guidelines, what I was taught in school and what I experienced in the real world. The end goal still remains the same: make something awesome instinctively. Reasons and logic can be applied later (people post-rationalise all the time anyway).
There's also a spiritual side of me that I discovered a few years ago: I believe that everything is somehow connected — I mean plants, animals, humans, space, us etc. so I've reduced my belief in trying to work with discrete components and rationalised buckets because life isn't like that!
Tell us about the core values or philosophies that guide your creative practice.
What needs to change, so emerging and under-represented creative professionals have more opportunity, are seen and heard?
How important is it that creative professionals find their unique voice?
Looking ahead, what do you think are the key factors that will influence change for creative professionals?
How much does your city influence your work?
How much does your culture influence your work?
Tell us some of your favourite, creative professionals and inspiring places in your city!
What should emerging creative professionals keep in mind as they begin their design career?
Do what you love. It's the most cliched thing I could say, but trust me there's so much wisdom and truth in that precisely because it's very hard to do it in a professional, real world setting. There will be many moments when you'll be lucky and unlucky, so keep that in mind as well. Same goes for hiring — it's a very opaque process (as someone who has been on both sides) but I've only found one consistent edge — someone who's work screams "this is me, and you can't find anyone like me".
Caveat: my advice is mixed with a healthy amount of personal projection with my own anecdotal experiences!