On July 25, 2016, Ramya began her professional career. After completing her undergraduate degree in Photography & Photojournalism at Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts, Mysore. She had a decision to make – either join Amazon as a product photographer or join Habba.
Ramya says the reason to choose Habba came from an admiration for her father’s work. Her father worked at an NGO named Myrada that caters to tribal communities, students and farmers. She says people would come to her house and show gratitude as to what the organisation did for them. This feeling grew in her. Since then she wanted to do something for fellow Indians.
During her childhood, she would delve herself into the world of art. Her fascination with colours and painting kept her engrossed.
Habba served as a perfect fit. Her love for art and social work drove her towards many amazing projects down the line.
As a photographer, she was dedicated to bringing out the value imbibed in handmade products. She says, “If the pictures on the website are not good enough it would dishonest the artisan’s work”.
Ramya mentions that Habba’s bioscope was an exciting project to work on. It allowed them to do justice to the artisans by installing their miniature artworks in a portable kit. Allowing people to feel & touch makes them connect to the artwork directly.
Habba bioscope – A peek into realism
While at Habba, Ramya also helped the Rang De team with production and photography. Her transition to the Rang De team in 2019 as a Visual Storyteller was seamless.
Her initial fieldwork was at Solapur where she helped cover the profiles of 22 investees, enabling them to raise funds on the platform. All pictures of the people you see on the website are taken as per standards set by the Rang De team. Ramya has conducted multiple training sessions for our impact partners on the basics of photography enabling them to set these standards on the ground.
Caught in action.
While at Rang De, she also tried her hands at designing. She says “At a point in time there was no one in the team to handle designs. I stepped up and started making creatives for Rang De’s social media handles.” This work continued for a while, she became adept at video editing and design over time. Her interest peaked so much that she took up this work diligently.
Ramya now works as a UI designer. She took up a course and learnt her way through. She says the entire process of making designs for users and getting them validated through user testing, helps her understand what needs to be done to make social investing easier at Rang De.
Ramya now works with the product team and builds a lot of what you see at the rangde.in website. Her first major step in designing was during the ‘Rang De India’ campaign – A National movement to raise funds for farmers. During which she worked on designs for the product, social media handles, ads etc.
From a photographer to UI designer her journey at Rang De has been dynamic and continues to be so.
A look back in time.
With Life at Rang De, we aim to cover the stories of our teammates to give you a sense of what the Rang De team is made of.