Nishit Gupta shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Nishit, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
When I’m sketching ideas, just like I did as a six-year-old filling notebooks with drawings, I completely lose track of time. The flow of lines and forms brings me back to that same pure curiosity, reminding me why I became a designer in the first place.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Nishit Gupta—an industrial designer passionate about blending creativity with purpose. I’ve been fortunate to design award-winning products across tech, lifestyle, and consumer goods for companies like HP, Adidas, Kohler, and now Coca-Cola. I approach every project with curiosity and empathy, striving to create solutions that feel intuitive, inclusive, and meaningful in everyday life.
My work focuses on human-centered design grounded in empathy and research. I lean toward clean, functional aesthetics – where form follows emotion, not just function. I’m drawn to storytelling through design: creating products that feel familiar yet forward-looking. My design language often blends modern minimalism with purpose-driven details, aiming to create a lasting impact rather than fleeting trends.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
While working on a project with the Adidas Futures Team in Berlin, I lived the research: interviews, shadowing athletes and ordinary Berliners, and doing immersion exercises with people from different religions, genders, and walks of life. It wasn’t just asking questions – it was watching rituals, joining training sessions, and noticing tiny workarounds that people used every day.
That experience cracked open assumptions I’d carried as a designer. I learned how context reshapes the need: the same product gesture can mean very different things depending on place, culture, and habit. It pushed me to practice anthropology in design, searching for latent problems, not just obvious ones, and to prototype solutions that respect real behaviors rather than impose them.
The lesson stuck. It still guides how I approach projects for Coca-Cola and Kohler: start with empathy, test in context, and design systems that adapt to people, not the other way around.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
It is okay to fail. You learn from it and move on.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
In regards to Industrial Design and creativity, they’d say it comes down to three practical commitments: solving for real people, obsessing over craft, and delivering dependable products.
I start with sketching, still the fastest way I find problems and possibilities, then layer in ethnographic research and prototyping to validate what actually works. Ergonomics and small details matter because they’re the difference between a product people tolerate and one people reach for every day. And finally, shipping with integrity means collaborating across teams, balancing business constraints, and refusing shortcuts that compromise usability or sustainability.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Are you tap dancing to work? Have you been that level of excited at any point in your career? If so, please tell us about those days.
Yes, I’ve had days I was practically tap-dancing to work. A few that stand out:
-The day the Fastener Block started winning awards (Gold at MUSE and several international honors). Seeing months of user testing and tiny prototypes validated felt electric- I couldn’t wait to get back to the studio.
-When my Coca-Cola cocktail dispenser publicly debuted at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Dec 17, 2022): watching it pour thousands of drinks and knowing it worked at scale made me grin all morning.
-Getting the utility patent (US 10,838,467 B1) approved for a flexible-screen concept – that confirmation that an idea was truly new and innovative.
-Early wins like the HP Tribe winning the Spark Gold (2019) moment – seeing a concept I helped push get recognized alongside major brands, reminded me why I chose this path.
Those days weren’t about ego, they were about the joy of solving real problems and the permission to do more of it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://nishgupta.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nishoriginals/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guptanish/
