Meet Mahima Jain

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mahima Jain a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mahima, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.

I keep my creativity alive by always making space for side projects, they’re my way of staying connected to the joy and curiosity that first drew me to design. My full-time work is often about solving problems and creating structured systems, but my side projects let me explore without rules or expectations. They become my playground for experimentation, whether it’s illustrating emotions, building small interactive experiences, or combining 2D and 3D visuals just to see what happens.

Those personal explorations recharge me. They remind me that creativity doesn’t have to serve a purpose, sometimes it’s just about expression, discovery, or healing. Side projects keep me grounded, curious, and constantly evolving as both a designer and a person.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’m a multidisciplinary designer and illustrator who blends emotional storytelling with interactive and visual design. My background is in product and experience design, but over the years I’ve found myself drawn to the deeply human side of creativity, how visuals can articulate what words often can’t.

My journey into design began with curiosity about how form, color, and motion can influence how people feel. That curiosity evolved into a career in digital product design, where I now build thoughtful, intuitive, and expressive experiences for users. Alongside my professional work, I explore illustration and motion as a personal outlet, creating visual narratives around identity, emotions, and mental health.

Ultimately, I want my work to invite reflection and empathy. I want people to feel something, to see a bit of themselves in what I create. Whether I’m designing a digital experience or an emotional narrative, my goal is to make invisible feelings visible through thoughtful, human-centered design.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back, I think the three qualities that have had the most impact on my journey are emotional awareness, curiosity, and resilience.

Emotional awareness taught me to design and create from a place of honesty. When you understand your own emotions, what moves you, frustrates you, inspires you, you start to see design not just as problem-solving, but as storytelling. My advice to others is: stay connected to yourself. Your emotional insight is your creative compass.

Curiosity has kept me learning and evolving. The most transformative moments in my career came from exploring tools or mediums just because they interested me, not because they were required. For anyone starting out, follow your curiosity without waiting for permission. The things you experiment with now often become your strongest differentiators later.

And resilience, the quiet ability to keep going when things don’t work, when ideas fall apart, or when self-doubt gets loud. Creativity isn’t linear. My advice here is to treat your process with compassion. You don’t have to get it perfect, you just have to keep creating.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

The biggest challenge I’m facing right now is imposter syndrome. Being early in my career, it’s easy to feel like I haven’t “earned” my place yet, like everyone else knows exactly what they’re doing while I’m still figuring things out. That feeling sometimes makes me hesitate to take risks or share my work because I worry it’s not good enough.

I’ve been learning to work through it by reminding myself that growth comes from trying, not from already knowing. I try to focus on small wins, ask for feedback instead of validation, and let curiosity lead instead of fear. Therapy has also helped me understand that self-doubt doesn’t mean I’m unqualified, it just means I care deeply about what I’m creating.

More than anything, I’m learning to be okay with being a work in progress because that’s where the real learning and creativity happen.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mahima.work/
• Instagram: @ mostly_m
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahima-j-9a405915b/