shylesh.

A curious mind.
A thoughtful designer.
A friendly collaborator.

I’m Shylesh. I enjoy making sense of complicated things—and having a little fun along the way.

Over the last 5+ years, I’ve worked across security, creative tools, AI, travel, community tech, CRMs, and dashboards. Different spaces, same curiosity: how can this work better for the people using it?

At Pencil, I brought image generation and refinement into the Social Ads Editor. As the solo product designer, I worked across the audit, interaction framework, component specifications, usability testing, and cross-team alignment.

My work also spans a stealth AI SecOps company’s investigation details, Attack UI, and Skyline; Surge’s revamp, access control and CMS; and Pulse’s company tracker CRM.

Always a work in progress.

I’m always exploring, learning, and keeping up with what’s next in tech. The interesting part is finding where new possibilities meet real needs.

I’m exploring senior product design roles worldwide and am open to thoughtful freelance collaborations.

Let’s talk

A little life
outside the frame.

People, places, and the moments in between.

Open the book. Stay a while.

Outside the frame

Use the arrows or swipe to turn a page.

How I got into Design

It all started
with Cricket 07.

No grand career plan. Just games, curiosity, and one experiment leading to another.

My first brief?
Put myself in the game.
  1. 2012

    A laptop, and a world to explore

    My sister needed a laptop for her Class 12 projects. I used it to explore Word, PowerPoint, and a growing collection of games.

  2. Grades 9–10

    It all started with Cricket 07

    Game patches introduced me to Photoshop. I edited jerseys, bats, stadium ads, and player faces—even putting my own face and school uniform into the game. Friends became my first audience.

  3. School days

    Paid in mobile recharges

    A friend and I started a Facebook photo-editing page. Requests came from across Kerala and beyond. Payments arrived as mobile recharges; local cash usually went straight to the bakery.

  4. August 2017

    Becoming the design guy

    I joined college and volunteered for Magnum through the IEEE student branch. My first sample wasn’t great, but feedback from a senior became a hands-on education in graphic design.

  5. College / IEEE

    From volunteering to leading

    College and Kerala events led to the Kochi Hub Design Team and a LINK ECC role. I later led nearly 10 designers across India for IEEE Compute Edition 7, earning appreciation from the IEEE Computer Society Global team.

  6. College / branding

    A brand of my own

    With full creative ownership of Kochi Hub Meet’s branding, I built an identity that was well received in the community and led to freelance work.

  7. Youth IGF

    Design opened new doors

    I joined Youth IGF as a designer and travelled to Kolkata for the event and inSIG. The following year, I became the event’s design lead.

  8. Discovering UX

    Where technology met creativity

    A senior asked me to teach UX and prototyping. Preparing for that session opened up a new direction. In my fifth semester, I built an entire app prototype in Adobe XD and began to see design as a career.

  9. During COVID

    A little better, every day

    I explored Figma, took on freelance work, and joined TinkerHub’s 10 Days of Design. Daily UI challenges turned experimentation into visible progress.

  10. Early internships

    Learning through real projects

    An internship brought e-commerce websites and LMS tools into my work. After four months, I moved on; later, Terrific Minds gave me exposure to real product experiences.

  11. KeyValue

    My first full-time design role

    A call from KeyValue led to becoming the design team’s first fresher hire. The team, mentors, and colleagues helped shape the product designer I was becoming.

Work experience

Awards & other highlights

Education

Talks & workshops