Saawan Ebe: Bridging Product Design and Hand Lettering Across Two Worlds
Saawan Ebe, an innovative designer originally from India, combines creative concepts with practical design. After earning his mechanical engineering degree from BITS Pilani, he relocated to New York in 2013 to pursue an MFA at the School of Visual Arts, influenced by notable designers Stephen Doyle and Steven Heller. His thesis, titled Type Aakriti, highlights India's typographic tradition. While at Nulab, he enhanced the Backlog app, boosting its App Store rating significantly and increasing the user base. Now a Senior UX Designer at Trimble, Ebe also engages in independent art projects and shares his philosophical insights on Substack, based in San Francisco.
Key facts
- Saawan Ebe studied mechanical engineering at BITS Pilani before earning an MFA at SVA in 2013.
- His MFA thesis Type Aakriti is a digital platform celebrating India's typographic heritage.
- At Nulab, he redesigned the Backlog mobile app, raising its App Store rating from 2.5 to 4.6 stars and doubling monthly active users.
- At Fieldwire, he designed features that achieved a 90% increase in location data captured and 85% adoption of a new product surface within the first year.
- Fieldwire was acquired by Hilti for a reported $300 million.
- He currently serves as Senior UX Designer at Trimble, a billion-dollar construction software company.
- Two of his logo designs appeared in Smashing Logo Design in 2011.
- Steven Heller published two of his lettering pieces on the SVA MFA Design blog.
- His caricature subjects include Conan O'Brien, Zohran Mamdani, and MKBHD.
- He publishes essays on Substack at madebysaan.substack.com.
- His aphorism 'The value money creates often devalues us' was created during his MFA under Stephen Doyle.
- He is currently based in San Francisco.
Entities
Artists
- Saawan Ebe
- Stephen Doyle
- Steven Heller
- Paul Rand
- Herb Lubalin
- Conan O'Brien
- Zohran Mamdani
- MKBHD
- Lata Mangeshkar
- Asha Bhosle
Institutions
- BITS Pilani
- School of Visual Arts
- SVA MFA Design program
- Nulab
- Fieldwire
- Hilti
- Trimble
- InterviewStreet
- HackerRank
- Studio Saawan
- New York Art Life Magazine
- Smashing Logo Design
- Substack
- Gorillaz
Locations
- India
- New York
- San Francisco
- United States