“It all begins with an idea and ends with a story.”
To me, being creative isn’t a profession, it’s an unfolding narrative where every pixel, frame, and interaction contributes to a larger story worth telling.I see design as an orchestra of disciplines - art, direction, storytelling, UX, UI, Service as Design and strategy, all playing in harmony to craft meaning. My work lives in that in-between, where intuition meets insight, and imagination holds hands with data. I move fluidly between worlds with ease; from sketching raw thoughts to sculpting digital journeys guided by a single pursuit: “understanding people”. Their longings, their frictions, their quiet, unspoken needs.
And perhaps that’s why I call myself a multidisciplinary creative director — because my work isn’t confined to a medium or method, but shaped by whatever it takes to understand, move, and connect with people.
Archived History
My name is Ritik Sachdev, and if my family archives are to be believed I was born on 22nd January 1987, which makes me old enough to understand that war and poverty bother me as much as anyone else who is allowed to vote.
The first few years of my life were fairly uneventful — unless you count learning how to walk and talk as major milestones (which I do). Eleven schools later — not because I was a troublemaker, but because my dad was in the Army and we moved like a travelling circus — I eventually walked through the wood-panelled halls of Ogilvy, Mumbai (so wooden, Noah’s Ark would’ve been jealous) to officially become an Art Director. Technically, I’d been one all my life , I just decided to start getting paid for it.
My creative career got off to a decent start with a One Show Merit for the Ponds Young Love campaign, during which I also discovered my own love — for creativity. Since then, ideas have been less of a job and more of a life choice. A few shiny recognitions followed: Economic Times 30 under 30 (2015), Impact Magazine 30 under 30, a Silver at Spikes Asia, and a Cannes nomination — all while juggling campaigns for Breakthrough, Fosters, Channel V, and others (still waiting on that email from Google, though).
In 2015, I had the privilege of attending the Cannes Lions Festival, where two things changed my life , creativity and food. Soon after, I found myself clinking tepid beers at jazz concerts with most of the cast of Beauty and the Beast (long story) while pulling a few favours to direct my first ad film. Around that time, I packed up six years’ worth of Ogilvy memories, FIFA nights included — to join MullenLowe Lintas as Creative Director. But itchy feet (and an even itchier curiosity) had other plans. So, with 30 kilos of overweight luggage and 100 kilos of ambition, I flew to Manchester to study Digital Experience Design at Hyper Island - making human-centric design my new religion. After graduating, I hopped over to Amsterdam to work with The Ticketing Group, where I built a system aimed at making culture more accessible, intuitive, and interactive — all while completing my thesis and falling deeper into the world of UX.
Since then, my creative trail has zigzagged across art, design, advertising, film, digital, and experience — all connected by one golden thread: empathy. Understanding people, their emotions, quirks, and expectations has been my not-so-secret design superpower.
My digital nomad era began shortly after: I returned to Mumbai, joined Razorfish, worked with a few film production houses, co-founded Pipli.ai with some incredible humans, and even helped brew a coffee brand (because good ideas deserve caffeine). I dived into everything from building digital products for mom-and-pop stores in tier-2 towns, to setting up massive commerce ecosystems for warehouses like Redington.
Somewhere along the way, I explored blockchain in design Created a loyalty programs with NFT’s , created India’s first car configurators for Citroën using OpenGL, and even helped Amul make its debut in the metaverse.
It’s been a wild, creative ride — and I’m still curious about what’s next.