Ishan Upadhyay, neoteric storyteller

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Every brand has a story. Few reach people whole. Industrial design taught me to respect the *object. Leading teams taught me to curate the *narrative around it. When the tool to tell it doesn't exist, I build the *instrument myself. The work lives where the three meet, as one *experience, for brands and for individuals.

Currently Head of Creative & AI Creative Lab, Uni Cards
Ch. One01Work

A curated selection of narratives for brands and people

Ch. Two02Instruments

Tools I build when a story needs a new way to be told

Ch. Three03Experiments

Stories without a brief. Images and short films made with generative tools and an industrial designer's eye

Ch. Four04Play

Stories you play with your hands. Five games and one instrument, each opens in place

Ch. Five05About

A storyteller first. Industrial designer, creative director and creative technologist by method

Eleven years across fintech, mobility and consumer brands, from metal cards taken through factory floors in New Jersey and Philadelphia to products people open every day. I curate the narrative, lead the teams that tell it and build the tools it needs.

A man in black beside a tall mechanical flamingo in a white studio
From the AI X series

A brand is felt as one story, not a stack of deliverables. So the work moves between strategy, image and code: an identity in two scripts, a generative pipeline for a gold card, a browser instrument built because the right one didn't exist. Experign is the studio where those threads meet.

Practice

  • Narrative & creative direction
  • Industrial design
  • Creative technology
  • Image making

Experience

  • Uni CardsHead of Creative & AI Creative Lab · now
  • PowerUp MoneyCreative leadership
  • JupiterAurora metal card
  • OLA · Ather · USTMobility & technology
  • ExperignStudio · ongoing

Advisory

Roots

  • Ahmedabadwhere it began
  • Bengalurusince 2017