Shahina Ahmed
- 3 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Starting out studying Visual Communication in Chennai, Shahina Ahmed quickly realised design was her passion. Fast forward to the present day she’s a Design Director at Revolt, a global creative consultancy, and the co-founder of Actual Friends, a multi-disciplinary design collective. While Revolt challenges her to think more commercially, Actual Friends allows her to explore more personal and cultural stories through creative thinking.
Shahina talks candidly on the importance of putting yourself out there, stepping outside of your comfort zone, embracing the unknown and taking risks. As she told us “You just never know where your next job is going to come from.” We recently chatted with Shahina to discuss her design journey, how she juggles her work for Revolt and Actual Friends, as well as her insights into the virtues of physical crafts.
Can you tell us about your journey from studying Visual Communication in Chennai, to working in many cities and countries, to where you are today?
I studied Visual Communication in Chennai, originally because I wanted to be a journalist and the course included a module so it felt like a safe choice at the time. Graphic design was part of the course, but only a small part, so my grounding was broad rather than deep. I left knowing I liked design, but also very aware that my foundations were shallow. Chennai wasn’t known as a centre for contemporary graphic design; this is what pushed me to London to study at LCC.
“I knew that if I wanted to take this seriously, I had to put myself in environments where the bar was higher. I tend to be a comfort-zone person, but I try to stay self-aware and when something starts to feel too safe, I know it’s time to make a change.”
From there, my career took me across different cities across the UK, US, Middle East and India, working across a range of disciplines from interactive design and editorial to branding. I tried to stay open, find my feet and understand where I wanted my career to go by doing. Some places taught me how to think at scale and work with complex systems, others taught me sensitivity, restraint, and how much context really matters. What this shaped most was my instinct to always design with the audience and place in mind. I’m constantly asking who this is for, where it will live, and how much it really needs to say. Working across cultures made me comfortable moving between global brands and deeply personal stories, and that tension still sits at the centre of my work. Chennai, in particular, gave me a calm, measured pace. I think that shows up more in how I approach problems, how I present myself, and how I hold space in the work.
“It’s not about getting something out of every interaction, it’s just about having the interaction and enjoying it as much as you can.”
How did you land your role as Design Director at Revolt and how do you manage that alongside running Actual Friends – do the two roles inform one another?
I joined Revolt as a senior designer and grew into the Design Director role by staying close to the work while gradually taking on more responsibility. I value consistency and stability, so alongside leading projects I spent time mentoring junior designers, building strong relationships across disciplines, and getting involved in the culture of the studio. Over time, that translated into trust. I was given bigger clients, more complex problems, and eventually the responsibility of building and guiding teams. It wasn’t a sudden jump, more an accumulation of care, commitment and accountability. Revolt stretches me in terms of scale, systems and leadership.
“Running Actual Friends alongside Revolt keeps me creatively honest. Actual Friends gives me space to experiment, follow cultural curiosity, and make work that’s slower and more personal.”
The two inform each other constantly. The craft, sensitivity and restraint that come from Actual Friends feed into my commercial work, while the strategic rigour and clarity required at Revolt strengthen the way we approach projects in the studio.
Do the techniques you use when considering the user journey change depending on whether the project is for Revolt or Actual Friends?
It does change, mostly because the type of work changes. At Revolt, we’re working across everything from ad campaigns and brand identities to impact reports and platforms. There’s a lot of rigour in the process because we’re collaborating closely with strategists and sustainability experts, so the thinking has to hold up across different audiences, markets and use cases.
For design-led projects like branding, we usually start with a series of workshops. It’s a way of getting aligned early on who we’re really designing for and what the ambition is before anything visual starts to take shape. A lot of Revolt projects need to scale, so the user journey has to be clear and consistent, even when it’s experienced in different contexts. Testing plays a big role too. On the CPR Bra project for St John Ambulance, feedback from women and medical professionals completely changed the direction of the design. We made and tested multiple prototypes, and what we learned through that process shaped the final outcome.
With Actual Friends, the principles are similar but the pace is different. There’s more room for intuition and closeness to the end user, sometimes even designing with our own communities in mind. It allows us to test ideas in a more personal way, but the questions stay the same: who is this for, and how should it make them feel at each point?
Actual Friends studio likes to instil a sense of fun and joy in its projects – how do you maintain a balance between fun and professional?
For us, fun isn’t about being playful for the sake of it. It’s about creating something people actually want to engage with. The professionalism comes from how clearly the idea is thought through and how carefully it’s carried across everything the brand touches. Once that foundation is clear, fun becomes a tool, not a distraction.
“It’s about finding moments of joy and surprise that make the identity feel alive, without undermining its purpose.”
That might mean being playful with form, colour or tone. If the fun doesn’t serve the brand’s core message or resonate with its audience, we leave it out because fun shouldn’t feel frivolous.
How do you establish the story or narrative that runs through a creative project?
I think the strategy needs to set the foundation, but you also have to stay open to where the process takes you, and that happens through close collaboration across departments/people. We align early on what the project needs to communicate, but I’m careful not to lock the story too soon. As the work progresses, patterns start to emerge and the narrative can shift, and that’s a natural part of the process. Love, Paati is a good example. It began as an idea to archive recipes from one grandmother. Over time, through conversations and gathering material, it became clear that the real richness was in the multiple voices around food, ritual and care. The project shifted naturally into something more narrative-led, and we let the work follow that direction.
In previous interviews you’ve stated you and your team like to explore practical and physical crafts. How important is this with the increasing use of AI and digital technologies?
I’ve always been drawn to making things by hand. At university, a lot of my work ranged from hand-bound books to painted and printed experiments using screenprint and linocut. That instinct carried into my work life too, whether it’s finding small, tactile moments like an origami menu for a pop-up restaurant, or using making as a way to explore ideas together.
It doesn’t always lead to a final output, and that’s okay. The value is often in the process. Making things together is a great way to think differently and build trust within a team. Especially now, with AI dictating the pace of work, physical craft helps slow things down and introduces imperfection, which is often where personality comes from.
I always wish there was more time and budget to do more by hand. But part of the job is balancing that with the realities of the business. Even when the final outcome is digital, thinking physically still shapes the work.
How important do you think collaboration is for creating successful creative outputs?
Actual Friends exists because we believe the work is better when it’s made together, with each other and with our clients. We’re not trying to be good at everything. We’re much more interested in getting the right people involved and letting different strengths shape the outcome.
A big part of collaboration for us is communication. When we work with clients, we spend a lot of time talking things through properly, usually in workshops, so we understand how they think and what they care about. We’re not just presenting ideas to them, we’re building things with them. That makes a huge difference to how invested they are in the work.
Have there been any moments you’ve doubted yourself and your abilities during your career? What helped you move past that feeling?
Ah, on a daily basis! I’ve always been my biggest barrier. Imposter syndrome has followed me from city to city, especially walking into studios where no one quite sounded like me or shared my background.
“As human beings we’re so willing to think more about the negative things that people have said.”
But then I started collecting evidence. I began keeping track of projects that went well, feedback from people I respected, and the fact that clients kept coming back. Having something concrete to look at helped when my head was telling me a different story. The other part was doing things while scared anyway. Taking new jobs in new cities and stepping into leadership roles. Each time, I realised I didn’t fall apart. The doubt didn’t disappear, but it stopped being a reason to hold back.
Any key bits of advice for emerging creatives you could share with us?
I don't think I'll ever feel qualified to give advice and there's plenty of great advice out there already so I'll leave it to the professionals. Simon Dixon on LinkedIn is a personal fav :)
Written by Lucy McKenna-Patel
