Chandrima Samanta Is Making It Big as a Part-Time Creator at Pepper

Chandrima is a freelance graphic designer, born and brought up in Kolkata. She always knew conventional fields like engineering or medical were not her cup of tea. She set her mind on a design career right when she was in school. She was always fascinated by animation and illustration and went on to do her bachelors in multimedia and animation. 

In her own words: “I was quite clueless about my major while searching for colleges. But a senior in school introduced me to this program. I knew, then, that it was my calling.”

Currently, Chandrima is working full-time in Bengaluru as a visual designer. She takes up freelance projects from different clients as a side hustle. She has been a full-time professional designer for over three years, but her cumulative experience in design spans five years. She loves how creative and driven people are in this profession.

Learning Curve in Design

Chandrima has been into designing for as long as she can remember. Back in college, she would take up a variety of design-related projects. Her main focus is on graphic designing, but she explores other verticals too. 

As part of her corporate job, she works on projects related to Facebook and Google Ads, along with YouTube graphics. She is proficient with tools, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects. She also enjoys doing video editing and animation at a basic level.

Chandrima believes in continuous learning as a designer. She attends design workshops and follows thought leaders from brands whose content she likes. She also actively does cold outreach to get connected to experienced designers in the industry and likes to keep herself updated on the latest design trends.

Growing With Pepper

Chandrima got introduced to Pepper Content through LinkedIn. She has been with Pepper for over nine months, and so far, she has earned Rs. 1.3 lakhs just by working part-time. It has been an excellent source of passive income for her. She also emphasizes the freedom to choose her work hours at Pepper. 

Chandrima says that the creator portal makes receiving and submitting assignments seamless, as it saves her quite a lot of time and effort. This helps her manage her full-time job with freelance work effectively. Thanks to Pepper, Chandrima now finds herself working with some of the biggest brands out there. It has given her insights into how the design process varies from company to company. 

Her Achievements

Chandrima is one of the most talented designers at Pepper. When asked about her accomplishments, she recalls positive client feedback as one. Some clients she worked with previously wanted to work with her on other projects as well. She considers it a huge motivating factor—one that drives her work.

Her Design Process and Future Goals

Chandrima likes to work at her own pace to ideate better. She sometimes listens to audiobooks while designing to keep the creative juices flowing. She takes a user-centric approach to all her designs, viewing every design element from the lens of the viewer. An important part of her process is to analyze if the design is compelling enough to drive the viewer to a certain call to action (CTA). 

“Design is less about learning to operate the software. It’s more about visualization. I know people who can make better designs on Canva than someone who works on Photoshop,” Samanta emphasizes.

As far as her future plans go, Chandrima plans to explore the UX/UI field. She is learning software, such as Figma and Adobe XD, in order to broaden her skillset and aptitude. 

Message to Budding Designers

Practice is of utmost importance to budding designers, according to Chandrima. She suggests you shouldn’t wait for big gigs to get started. It’s a learning process, and it’s okay to start with small or mediocre projects as well. There’s plenty of work for designers today, and she thinks it’s only up from here. 

She tells us how there’s no hard and fast rule for being a good designer, so you shouldn’t get caught up in rigid processes. She also advises against taking basics, such as color theory, typography, etc., for granted.

“It all depends on how good you are at dealing with your projects and communicating with your clients,” Chandrima points out.

That’s a wrap on Chandrima’s story. Pepper is introducing her to design opportunities she deserves. We are bringing together outstanding talent in design to drive colossal changes in the industry. You, too, can give your design career a boost by joining forces with us.