anston thomas
anston thomas
anston thomas
anston thomas
hello, i'm anston
Who I Am
I am a Strategic Designer with over 4 years of experience crafting digital products and services that empower people, planet and sustainable futures.
What I Do
From writing technical and financial proposals to shaping design strategy, researching, prototyping, testing, and managing clients - I can take ideas
end-to-end.
what i've achieved
I’ve impacted over 100 Million lives through 10+ projects across 3 continents, and was awarded Google Play Store’s Best App in AI 2023 for SwiftChat AI.
hello, i'm anston
Who I Am
I am a Strategic Designer with over 4 years of experience crafting digital products and services that empower people, planet and sustainable futures.
What I Do
From writing technical and financial proposals to shaping design strategy, researching, prototyping, testing, and managing clients - I can take ideas
end-to-end.
what i've achieved
I’ve impacted over 100 Million lives through 10+ projects across 3 continents, and was awarded Google Play Store’s Best App in AI 2023 for SwiftChat AI.
Strategic Designer
Business Designer
UX/UI Designer
Researcher
Service Designer
Digital Strategist
Strategic Designer
Business Designer
UX/UI Designer
Researcher
Service Designer
Digital Strategist
Design Proposal Writing
Design Pitches
Research
Design Strategy
UX Design
UI Design
Testing & Validation
Client Management
Design Presentations
AI-Enhanced Research
AI-Enhanced Design
Design Proposal Writing
Design Pitches
Research
Design Strategy
UX Design
UI Design
Testing & Validation
Client Management
Design Presentations
AI-Enhanced Research
AI-Enhanced Design
i design human experiences across digital, products & services
i design human experiences
across digital, products & services
i design human experiences across
digital, products & services
e-commerce responsive design
Increasing Awareness and Uptake of Family Planning Products by Redesigning an
E-Pharmacy Platform
in Africa
research & strategy
AI-Enhanced Qualitative Research to Design Digital Wealth Management Solutions for HNIs & UHNIs
in India
These are the stories I’ve told.
But tomorrow holds more,
and I’m eager to see
where it takes me.
view my Resume
These are the stories I’ve told.
But tomorrow holds more,
and I’m eager to see
where it takes me.
view my Resume
These are the stories I’ve told. But tomorrow holds more, and I’m eager to see
where it takes me.
view my Resume
i learnt design through life, through observation, through people
2000-2018
Growing up on Shawarmas
I grew up in the UAE aka the land of OG shawarmas aka a soupbowl of cultures. Living abroad, surrounded by people from everywhere, I unknowingly absorbed what it means to belong and to coexist. That mix of perspectives shaped me into someone who instinctively looks for inclusivity, a thread that now runs through all my design work.
2018-2021
Learning to Walk Again
I left home to study engineering in Cali (Calicut, not California). Between classes and labs, I found myself designing posters for college events, and watching friends throw themselves into passions that weren’t on the curriculum. If engineering colleges are anything, they’re career switch incubators. And sure enough, I discovered that design had quietly been waiting for me.
2021-2022
Pivot, PIVOT, PIVOTTTT!
Lockdown hit, the world paused, and that’s when I stumbled across UX Design. I dove in headfirst, teaching myself the basics, fumbling plenty, and realising that mistakes are the raw material of learning. My first break at a senior’s startup taught me exactly that - how to turn the messy into a model. Soon after, I landed an internship in Goa.
Goa humbled me. I found myself surrounded by a sea of talented digital designers, each sharper than the last. I learned to listen, to absorb, to ask. Collaboration became my biggest teacher.
2022-2024
B for Basically Stuck in BLR Traffic
Then came Bangalore. Between the endless traffic and the late-night projects, patience became my survival tool. But patience was also about reflecting. Every honk and every traffic block reminded me that systems fail when you simply design for people, and not with them.
2024
Just Getting Warmed Up
Then came the shift that changed everything - moving into the international development space. Suddenly, design wasn’t just about flows and screens. It was about real people, real systems, real change. I saw how design could nudge the world forward. I also saw how small I was in the vast ocean of global challenges, and that humility made me fall in love with strategic and service design. Today, I design not just to solve, but to listen, to include, and to co-create futures that are healthier, fairer, and more human.
i learnt design through life,
through observation,
through people
2000-2018
Growing up on Shawarmas
I grew up in the UAE aka the land of OG shawarmas aka a soupbowl of cultures. Living abroad, surrounded by people from everywhere, I unknowingly absorbed what it means to belong and to coexist. That mix of perspectives shaped me into someone who instinctively looks for inclusivity, a thread that now runs through all my design work.
2018-2021
Learning to Walk Again
I left home to study engineering in Cali (Calicut, not California). Between classes and labs, I found myself designing posters for college events, and watching friends throw themselves into passions that weren’t on the curriculum. If engineering colleges are anything, they’re career switch incubators. And sure enough, I discovered that design had quietly been waiting for me.
2021-2022
Pivot, PIVOT, PIVOTTTT!
Lockdown hit, the world paused, and that’s when I stumbled across UX Design. I dove in headfirst, teaching myself the basics, fumbling plenty, and realising that mistakes are the raw material of learning. My first break at a senior’s startup taught me exactly that - how to turn the messy into a model. Soon after, I landed an internship in Goa. Goa humbled me. I found myself surrounded by a sea of talented digital designers, each sharper than the last. I learned to listen, to absorb, to ask. Collaboration became my biggest teacher.
2022-2024
B for Basically Stuck in BLR Traffic
Then came Bangalore. Between the endless traffic and the late-night projects, patience became my survival tool. But patience was also about reflecting. Every honk and every traffic block reminded me that systems fail when you simply design for people, and not with them.
2024
Just Getting Warmed Up
Then came the shift that changed everything - moving into the international development space. Suddenly, design wasn’t just about flows and screens. It was about real people, real systems, real change. I saw how design could nudge the world forward. I also saw how small I was in the vast ocean of global challenges, and that humility made me fall in love with strategic and service design. Today, I design not just to solve, but to listen, to include, and to co-create futures that are healthier, fairer, and more human.
i learnt design through life,
through observation, through people
2000-2018
Growing up on Shawarmas
I grew up in the UAE aka the land of OG shawarmas aka a soupbowl of cultures. Living abroad, surrounded by people from everywhere, I unknowingly absorbed what it means to belong and to coexist. That mix of perspectives shaped me into someone who instinctively looks for inclusivity, a thread that now runs through all my design work.
2018-2021
Learning to Walk Again
I left home to study engineering in Cali (Calicut, not California). Between classes and labs, I found myself designing posters for college events, and watching friends throw themselves into passions that weren’t on the curriculum. If engineering colleges are anything, they’re career switch incubators. And sure enough, I discovered that design had quietly been waiting for me.
2021-2022
Pivot, PIVOT, PIVOTTTT!
Lockdown hit, the world paused, and that’s when I stumbled across UX Design. I dove in headfirst, teaching myself the basics, fumbling plenty, and realising that mistakes are the raw material of learning. My first break at a senior’s startup taught me exactly that - how to turn the messy into a model. Soon after, I landed an internship in Goa.
Goa humbled me. I found myself surrounded by a sea of talented digital designers, each sharper than the last. I learned to listen, to absorb, to ask. Collaboration became my biggest teacher.
2022-2024
B for Basically Stuck in BLR Traffic
Then came Bangalore. Between the endless traffic and the late-night projects, patience became my survival tool. But patience was also about reflecting. Every honk and every traffic block reminded me that systems fail when you simply design for people, and not with them.
2024
Just Getting Warmed Up
Then came the shift that changed everything - moving into the international development space. Suddenly, design wasn’t just about flows and screens. It was about real people, real systems, real change. I saw how design could nudge the world forward. I also saw how small I was in the vast ocean of global challenges, and that humility made me fall in love with strategic and service design. Today, I design not just to solve, but to listen, to include, and to co-create futures that are healthier, fairer, and more human.
red makes up my design philosophy
red makes up my design philosophy
red makes up my design philosophy
For the longest time, I thought I didn’t have a "colour."
For the longest time,
I thought I didn’t have a "colour."
For the longest time, I thought I didn’t have a "colour."
Nothing that truly felt mine, or captured who I was. Then one random day, without meaning to, I noticed a pattern. I’d been surrounded by red - my bike, my guitar, my phone case, even my favourite hoodie. Maybe I’d been carrying my colour all along. Maybe it wasn’t a choice I had made consciously, but it was a reflection of how I moved through the world. Fast forward to today, red is more than a preference, more than an aesthetic choice. To me, it’s -
Nothing that truly felt mine, or captured who I was. Then one random day, without meaning to, I noticed a pattern. I’d been surrounded by red - my bike, my guitar, my phone case, even my favourite hoodie. Maybe I’d been carrying my colour all along. Maybe it wasn’t a choice I had made consciously, but it was a reflection of how I moved through the world. Fast forward to today, red is more than a preference, more than an aesthetic choice. To me, it’s -
Nothing that truly felt mine, or captured who I was. Then one random day, without meaning to, I noticed a pattern. I’d been surrounded by red - my bike, my guitar, my phone case, even my favourite hoodie. Maybe I’d been carrying my colour all along. Maybe it wasn’t a choice I had made consciously, but it was a reflection of how I moved through the world. Fast forward to today, red is more than a preference, more than an aesthetic choice. To me, it’s -
Confidence
Confidence
Confidence
Not the kind that says “I know it all,” but the quiet assurance that I’ll figure it out.
Not the kind that says “I know it all,” but the quiet assurance that I’ll figure it out.
Boldness
Boldness
Boldness
Refusal to fade into the background. Choosing to stand out, take risks, and be remembered. To challenge conventions.
Refusal to fade into the background. Choosing to stand out, take risks, and be remembered. To challenge conventions.
Passion
Passion
Passion
Not just for design, but for learning, for exploring, and for endlessly asking “what if”. Curiosity-driven design.
Not just for design, but for learning, for exploring, and for endlessly asking “what if”. Curiosity-driven design.
Conviction
Conviction
Conviction
Courage to stand by what matters, to ground ideas in evidence, and to drive them forward. Principled & purposeful.
Courage to stand by what matters, to ground ideas in evidence, and to drive them forward. Principled & purposeful.
But here’s the thing -
But here’s the thing -
But here’s the thing -
Red is what I bring to the table. Design becomes powerful only when my red meets your blue, her green, their yellow - when different ideas and perspectives come together. That’s where shared tomorrows come in. It's the idea that the future has to be co-created, and must be shared between people and planet, across cultures and communities. Because no tomorrow can be just red.
Red is what I bring to the table. Design becomes powerful only when my red meets your blue, her green, their yellow - when different ideas and perspectives come together. That’s where
shared tomorrows come in. It's the idea that the
future has to be co-created, and must be shared between people and planet, across cultures and communities. Because no tomorrow can be just red.
Red is what I bring to the table. Design becomes powerful only when my red meets your blue, her green, their yellow - when different ideas and perspectives come together. That’s where shared tomorrows come in. It's the idea that the future has to be co-created, and must be shared between people and planet, across cultures and communities. Because no tomorrow can be just red.
Let’s design for people,
planet, and better futures.
Let’s design for people,
planet, and better futures.
Let’s design for people,
planet, and better futures.
ianstonthomas@gmail.com
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ianstonthomas@gmail.com
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ianstonthomas@gmail.com
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hello, i'm anston
Who I Am
I am a Strategic Designer with over 4 years of experience crafting digital products and
services that empower people, planet and sustainable futures.
What I Do
From writing technical and financial proposals to shaping design strategy, researching, prototyping, testing, and managing clients - I can take ideas
end-to-end.
what i achieved
I’ve impacted over 100 Million lives through 10+ projects across 3 continents, and was awarded Google Play Store’s Best App in AI 2023 for SwiftChat AI.