nishita mohta

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Hello!

I’m a Design Ops consultant, author & design educator, who works with creative folks to design calmer work habits.
Here’s my story:

1993

I was born in New Delhi, India and grew up in a family of doctors. My parents made sure we took a family vacation every year, click lots of pictures and ever since I understood the concept of a”profession”, I wanted to be a photographer 📸

2011

Joining the School of Planning & Architecture (New Delhi) was an act of rebellion and a leap of faith, since everyone else was becoming an engineer. But this has been the single best decision of my life, and set the foundation for everything that follows.

2016

I graduated with a Gold Medal and an insatiable curiosity about the creative mind & processes. I wanted to work at human scales & design for direct human interaction, so I started working as a communication designer for brands & exhibitions.

2019

I joined the Creative & Cultural Businesses Programme at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad to learn more about the business side of creativity. I incubated a business idea for creative retreats to fight burnout, which came to an abrupt pause with the start of the pandemic (and which I hope to resume at some point in the near future)

2020

In the midst of the first lockdown, I started researching about creative fear & the mind, and created the passion project Vaccines For Fear, where I shared my learnings & insights through digital collage & writing. In a time of complete social isolation, this project connected me to thousands of others in the creative community.

Also 2020

I started working with Thought Over Design as their first Project Manager, and worked closely with the founder to set up the systems & processes which helped us grow from a team of 6 to a team of 23 over the next 3.5 years (including more managers, strategists & designers). This experience showed me the power of processes in a business context.

2021

I moved to Goa, the place where I’d interned in 2015 and the place which felt most like me in terms of its pace & creative energy. The first year was full of struggles with covid, a cyclone, and the never-ending power cuts. But the effort towards creating a home & community here has been absolutely worth it.

2022

I made my first big-stage appearance at the DesignUp Conference and a small-stage appearance at Pecha Kucha-Goa (in the same month). The in-person responses to my work around creative mindblocks became unparalleled motivation to dig deeper and share more of this research.

2023

Got married, set up a new home, spoke at the robotics conference at IIT-Bombay, and took the very hard decision to move on from my job. Working independently has been closer to my true nature, and it gave me more time to work on the book in which I wanted to compile all my research & writings so far.

June 2024

Published & launched my book Inspired: The A-Z of Creative Unblocking and was reminded once more that we can do hard things, slowly (click to read the introduction chapter by the same name).

September-October 2024

While completing a year of working independently with JLX Studio, Attirail, Rare Ideas, Val-More, Mookuthi and AND Academy, I also took to the stage again at the UX India Conference & DesignUp 2024 with workshops on perfectionism & passion projects.

Vision for 2025

I hope to continue working with a diversity of creatives – including professionals & students, while also improving my own systems & processes so that I have even more time for being outdoors with the people I love. 🌴☀️🏃🏽‍♀️

Resume

In a Nutshell

Education
  • 1997-2011: Delhi Public School, Mathura Road
  • 2011-2016: School of Planning & Architecture – B.Arch – Gold Medallist for the batch of 2016
  • 2016: Copenhagen Business School: Strategic Management (via Coursera)
  • 2019-2020: IIM-Ahmedabad – Creative & Cultural Business Programme
  • 2020-2021: Tibet House – Diploma in Nalanda Studies (Buddhist Philosophy & Psychology),
Work Experience
  • October 2023 – ongoing: Independent Design Ops Consultant
  • October 2023 – ongoing: Educator at AND Academy
  • July 2020-September 2023: Senior Project Manager at Thought Over Design
  • March 2018-July 2020: Freelance Brand & Communication Designer
  • July 2017-February 2018: Researcher & Exhibition Designer for Bonjour India, by SpaceMatters and the Institut Francais en Inde.
  • July 2016-July 2017: Communication Designer, Raasta, Delhi
Talks & workshops
  • Writing like an Architect: Talk at SpaceMatters in December 2024
  • Launch Lab: Kickstart Your Passion Projects: Workshop at DesignUp 2024
  • Resilience Toolkit against Perfectionism: Talk + workshop at UX-India Conference 2024 & recurring online
  • Design Career & The Inner Critic: Talk at AND Academy’s Kaleidoscope event
  • Creativity & The Inner Critic: Talks at IIT-Bombay & DesignUp 2022
  • Design Thinking Workshops with Novatr (Previously Oneistox, 2020)
Publications

Inspired: The A-Z of Creative Unblocking

My debut book is a compassionate guide to decoding your creative blocks.

Based on insights from psychological research on creativity and the collective knowledge of our creative community, this book helps you unpack the (not-so-) mysterious world of mindblocks.

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