Manya Mankad
Product Designer | Builder
Wanted to be an artist. Then an innovator. Now trying to be both.
Work
About
I wanted to be an artist. Then I wanted to be an innovator. I'm now trying to be both, which in practice means designing the thing and then building it myself.
The job is less visionary than that makes it sound. Most of it is fixing spacing, chasing bugs that shouldn't exist, and agonising over which font to use — and I probably shouldn't admit this as a designer, but a lot of them look pretty similar.
I think AI belongs in the design and build process. I also think that in a world running on auto-pilot, the first step should still be pen and paper — to get the ideas moving and get your brain out of autocomplete before a model starts finishing your sentences.
Currently obsessed with fine-art interactive installations that actually tell a story, classical-style short films, and music engineered to put you in your feelings. Off the clock: fiction, doodling cute clouds, constructing elaborate imaginary worlds, and doomscrolling — an unglamorous but honest list.
I'm in Bengaluru right now. It isn't home and it isn't the plan; I'd rather be a student of the world than a resident of anywhere in particular.