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Meet the Class of 2017: Ritwik, Saba, and Seungyoun Sara

Meet the 18 students who will make up the Class of 2017. Over the next few weeks, we’ll highlight three incoming students. Today: Ritwik, Saba, and Seungyoun Sara.


meet the class of 2017 ritwik saba and 1

Ritwik Deshpande

When he was 17, a local rag allowed Ritwik to pretend he was a real writer. Every Thursday they gave him four hundred words to rant about whatever he thought everyone should be listening to. He kept at it, and eventually turned into a full-time music journalist. He freelanced his way through college and took up a job as a features writer at NH7. As he was stacking paragraphs, he grew increasingly obsessed over controlling the experience of reading his articles. He began familiarizing himself with tools that would allow him to mould layouts to amplify their impact. After launching into an exploration of how the written word can be presented on the web, he began seeing writing, design, and coding as an integrated process and realized that the most exciting work lies at the point of their intersection. He now intends to put up a tent at this point and spend his days marveling at the intricacies.

Saba Singh

Saba is a traveler who has lived in four different countries and has been inspired (and confused) by several different cultures. Born and brought up in India (in six different states), she has since lived in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and the United States. Saba is constantly on the look out for inspiration from cultural art. Be it embroidery, henna, calligraphy, paintings, architecture or even literature, all forms of cultural art impact Saba’s work. She is an oil painter at heart.

Saba completed a Bachelor of Science from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business and found her interest and passion for design (specifically Interaction Design) by taking several different elective classes and working on projects with designers.

A firm believer in inter-disciplinary collaboration, Saba hopes to widen her horizon and gain insight into the world of IxD at SVA. Combining her knowledge from business and her travels, Saba hopes to develop outcomes that are truly user-centered, usable, and desirable.

Seungyoun Sara Lim

Seungyoun was born in Seoul, South Korea but grew up in a number of different cities while attending school. Throughout this period she always had a passion for art and thus received her BFA in Fine Art at Carnegie Mellon University.

Upon graduation, Seungyoun returned to Seoul to work at a museum of art and design where she quickly learned to appreciate the world of design as well as the joy and impact it had on people’s lives. Because of this, she taught herself to become a graphic designer and worked at an advertising and branding agency for two years before moving back to the United States.

Seungyoun loves interaction design’s approach towards people and how it can involve people of different backgrounds and experiences. As she becomes more deeply involved in interaction design she hopes to create more pleasurable experiences for users all around the world.

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