Meet Navya Arora

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Navya Arora. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Navya below.

Navya, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?

I have come to realize that my optimism is rooted in my relationship with time. I don’t expect things to happen instantly — I trust that they unfold when the conditions are ready. That belief makes me resilient. Even when things are uncertain, I feel a deeper faith that there’s a hidden system at work.

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 Navya, a designer from India.

I originally began my journey by pursuing creative writing. However, in my second year of undergraduate studies, I was compiling my poetry and stories into books, and I found my way to visual storytelling. When I realized I could combine those two skills and create compelling and evocative moments, I decided to pursue Graphic Design.

During my program, I was able to intern at advertising agencies as a copywriter. The involvement with the creative team showed me which side of the desk I wanted to be in. After graduation, I decided to freelance as a graphic designer and figure out what kind of designer I wanted to be. I had never thought I would be coming to the US for a master’s program, but after some nudging by my mentors, here I am finishing my MFA in Graphic Design from MICA!

It has been a topsy-turvy journey, but I have loved every aspect of it.

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

I believe hard skills are something you can learn at any point in your career, and whenever you feel like picking up a new skill, but the three qualities that helped me push myself every time I felt tired or even felt like giving up are Introspection, Consistency, and Curiosity.

Throughout different stages, I have kept asking myself the question: What do I want to do? What’s the most exciting to me in the moment, and what’s the most truest to me? Even at MICA, after every project and each semester, I have reflected on what worked for me and what did not. I’m a curious person, and it’s a quality that reflects even in my design practice. I’m curious to know why something works and how. I have to come to find this in my practice that the more you’re passionate about something, you’ll end up being curious about it.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

Absolutely!! My design practice is absolutely collaborative. I have actually been working (and reworking) on 2 personal projects that I aim to launch soon! I love cultural anthropology and the idea of sharing ideologies, behaviors, and material culture no matter which corner of the world you’re from! I love stories (creative writer alert!)

But yes, first project is Cities and Stories, and I would love to collaborate with photographers, journalists/writers, archivists, architects, sign-painters, anyone who is passionate about cities! The idea revolves around the question of whether cities shape us, or we shape the cities. The medium is gonna be print/digital publication, yet to decide whether it will be bi-annual or more sporadic.

The second project is a conversational one. Not a podcast, not an interview, but a meandering talk? This is an extension of my Thesis Project at MICA, and it’s about being in the Garden. What can we learn from the garden, whether it’s about looking at time or design. I approach design like a gardener, and would love to talk to more people who think about it, or are intrigued by it, or are gardeners/designers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://navyaarora.xyz/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/navs.err/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/navya-arora/