Today we’d like to introduce you to Kanika Anand
Hi Kanika, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a graphic designer from India, currently pursuing my MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Looking back, I think I got into design as a way to merge my two favorite subjects—art and sociology. It turned out to be the perfect intersection of both those interests.
I started out as a brand and visual designer, working in-house and freelancing, but over time, I became more interested in how design can be a tool to observe, document, and reimagine the world around us. I love how stories connect people and spark new ways of thinking, and that’s shaped a lot of my approach—whether I’m working on branding, information systems, or visual storytelling.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not exactly! One of my biggest struggles has been balancing structure and play—creating work that is both visually engaging and deeply meaningful. My projects are often personal, drawing from cultural narratives, emotions, and everyday experiences, so figuring out how to shape them into something meaningful and exciting has been challenging.
I also work across a lot of different mediums—typography, branding, packaging, print, motion, UI/UX—and there have been moments where I’ve wondered if I should just pick one. But I’ve learned to embrace the fact that my work is fluid—it moves between disciplines but always comes back to storytelling, whether it’s through shapes, type, or motion. Instead of restricting myself to a single format, I see design as an evolving language—one that adapts to different mediums.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Stories from nature, culture, and personal memory deeply inspire my work. My time at MICA has deepened my love for typography as a tool for expression, adding new depth to my practice.
For my MFA thesis, I’m exploring a new way of visualizing weather patterns. With only basic coding knowledge, I used AI to translate my ideas into working visuals, resulting in a generative weather warning system that speculates on extreme climate scenarios in a world exceeding worst-case warming projections.
The exhibit opens in March, and I’m excited to see how people engage with it.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
At the heart of it, I just love making things—whether it’s painting flowers, growing plants, recreating my grandmother’s recipes, or convincing friends to send postcards in a voice-note world. That instinct to document and preserve things finds its way into my design practice, too.
Lately, I’ve been exploring code as a tool to visualize and preserve the natural world—before we lose it to climate change! It’s been an exciting (and slightly overwhelming) process, but I love that design keeps pushing me to learn new ways of seeing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kanikanand.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kanikanand/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanikanand/
