In this article, I interviewed Prisha, IBlieve’s Design Lead! Here, Prisha gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse to show us what the Design team is all about and the process behind each design!
Please introduce yourself.
Hi! I’m Prisha from India, and I’m the Team Lead for the Design team! I currently live in the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, where I’m an IBDP student. I’m interested in Economics and Business, which is what I plan to study in university as well. I’m involved in a lot of student leadership initiatives which empower students, and I take part in events both at my school and outside of school. My involvement continues with many environmental initiatives, running campaigns in my local community and inspiring others to be more sustainable; I believe sustainability to be more real rather than superficial.
In your own words, what is the Design team all about?
I believe the Design team is all about the difference in the way all of the team members use and understand stylistic elements, whether that’s the fonts, textures, or icons. Even though this vast difference of our approaches to the designs exist, at the end we all have this common understanding, and what we produce is something that aligns with IBlieve’s brand, which I think is what makes it unique. The illustrator, Milan, is really talented, and she understands what we want essentially. When we have a request coming for IB specific designs (for example, ManageBac design), the illustrator understands what we have in mind so well, and the team is amazing to work with.
What does the process of editing and designing generally look like?
The process of editing and designing has a systematic approach to it. There is a social media tracker which all of the team has access to, and as the team lead, I check it out twice a week. Whenever there are new requests coming from social media, I ask the art designers and illustrators if they are free to design it, and based on their response I allocate the request to them. There is a deadline for when they get the work done, which is within 2-3 days or maximum in a week after I allocated the requested design. Later on, I take a look at the designs to see if there is anything to change, and if so, I give feedback and further follow up about it with them. It’s a streamline process that goes around with designing. When we have design requests from other teams of IBlieve, we communicate through the Discord channel for that, and for the urgent designs, I try to handle them myself.
For you, what is your favorite part about being part of the Design team?
It is great to know that I’m working in an international community with like-minded and motivated people, and getting exposed to such a diverse cohort of individuals who are DP1, DP2, or recent graduates. Also, it is great to see our work featured on IBlieve’s social media, whether that’s on Instagram, Linkedin, or the other social media platforms. Another favorite part about the Design team is knowing that we’re able to contribute to making some strategies students might be looking for, and making it more accessible even if it’s just through design. It’s so amazing working with a team of amazing designers and getting involved in communicating and working with them, which makes the process much more interesting and fun.
What do you design for, and where can the audience access it?
We design for IBlieve’s entire social media, whether that’s a cover on Instagram, TikTok, a Linkedin post, or any sort of image the audience sees on IBlieve’s social media is something we work on and contribute to. There are three main ways the audience can access it from; the website, the IBlieve newsletter (Substack), and Instagram, which is where we’re most active.
How can the audience get involved in your team? What is your ideal recruitment profile?
The audience can get involved in the Design team by sending an email to hello@iblieve.org. Showing their interest in the email is enough, and depending on the availability they will contact you back. Also, make sure to apply when there are recruitment sessions going on in IBlieve. Specifically about the Design team, I would like to say that there are no such ideal candidate requirements; we are looking for curious, open-minded and passionate individuals for designing. Make sure to get your skills and prior work noticed; no expert work is required or expected from you. If you get accepted, you will get exposed to using the design resources/softwares and develop your skills in that area. One advice I would like to give is that look at IBlieve’s posts on Instagram and try to design it in your own way. We want to see your individual understanding of design and the use of the stylistic elements, and how this can contribute to IBlieve!