When Bengaluru girl Rhea Belani left her home where she was pampered like a princess, little did she know that she would make it on her own in the global design world.
Daughter of an illustrious and industrialist family, the petite and ravishing Rhea Belani is full of promises to take on the world on her own now. After her schooling from Bengaluru, she went to the US for higher education. “I studied at Rhode Island School of Design. The school itself is incredibly competitive and has unbelievably tough hours. The students I surrounded myself with are incredibly talented and are doing extremely well in their fields. Just being a part of that lifestyle made me want to better myself as a designer. I eventually want to run my own company but starting with how I got to this point in my life where UX Design, VR and animation are imperative in my design thinking, I just knew I had to take my passion for fine arts and compliment it with my growing passion for technology and problem-solving. UX design just clicked with my two passions,” says Rhea, who majored in graphic design. Talking about her work stint after her graduation, she shares, “I worked as a User Experience Designer at a digital agency in Boston called Isobar. I am incredibly interested in problem-solving and taking technology to the next level with design as its frontier. I worked mainly with brands such as Adidas, Enterprise, Wyndham and Les Schwab to redesign their apps and websites to make things more user-friendly and easy to navigate.”
With dreams to learn more and achieve perfection in her field, Rhea is not one to sit still. She has plans to study further. “I am going to hone my knowledge at the Royal College of Art in London, UK where I will be completing my Masters. My major will be in Service Design, Interaction Design as well as a part MBA at Imperial College of London. I chose RCA because of its recognition and of course for the networking. My professors will be some of the best in their fields and I am looking for a new adventure in finding out more about myself as a designer and where I can take my skills to the next level. Post RCA, as of now I could either start my own UX company or go in the direction of working for some of the best companies in my field such as Ideo or Google. But I think RCA will shape me for my future and help me decide on concrete goals in pushing my career forward. My highpoints have been getting into two of the top universities I could have ever imagined getting accepted into, I feel incredibly grateful to RISD for making me the person I am today and I am grateful for being accepted into the Royal College of Art to further my ideas as a designer.”
The young girl who has a firm head on her shoulders owes it all to her parents Ravina and Sunder Belani who have stood by her all through. “My parents have been a huge support in what I do. My mom has always been my stress reliever. She’s been there at any time of the night (regardless of the time difference) whenever things got hard. My dad is the reason I became so ambitious in the first place. I want to be as dedicated and hardworking as he is,” shares Rhea filled with admiration for her father who has made his mark in his field. Rhea isn’t the kind of girl who’s all work and no play. This vivacious girl confesses, “I am obsessed with Bollywood dancing. I could just break out into dance whenever any Bollywood song comes on.”
