Hi, I'm Ketaki

It all began with a plan to earn a design degree in San Francisco. Fifteen years later, that leap turned out to be the best decision I ever made.

Fresh out of undergrad at 21, I packed my life into two suitcases and moved to the other side of the world for grad school in San Francisco. Halfway through my MFA, I met a guy from small-town Iowa at a phone-free networking event. A week after we got married, we moved to his hometown to build our lives and our businesses together. Overnight, I went from a clear picture of my design career in Silicon Valley to a small town with no network, no local clients and a not-entirely-solid plan.

It was terrifying at first. But building K8Ki Design Studio on my own terms meant I got to shape my process in a way that's completely true to me. No rules. No boss. No compromising on what good design actually means. Since 2018, I've worked with some of the most ambitious, values-driven business owners I've ever met, from a small town in Iowa, with clients all over the world.

Who would have thought a Mumbai girl would end up running a design studio in rural Iowa? Honestly, neither did I. And yet, here we are.

I lead with

  1. You can already see where this business is going. You just cannot show anyone else yet. My job is to make the thing in your head visible to everybody else.

  2. I want to know how your business actually works before I draw anything. The interesting answers are usually three questions deep.

  3. The best work happens when we work together toward the same goal. This is not a project you hand off and collect at the end, and what we make together is better for it.

  4. Every brand I build starts as a story, not a logo. Get the story right and the colors, the type and the words almost choose themselves.

  5. My ancestors wove Paithani saris, some of the most intricate textiles in Indian history. The patience, the precision, the attention to detail, the quality. All of it is in my blood, and it shows up in every project I work on.

  6. I am the trusted friend who tells you the truth about your brand. Warm, but direct. You will always know why a decision was made, in plain language.

  7. I build brands meant to outlast a trend cycle. If your site looks dated in two years, find a designer who understands branding holistically and builds something that ages well.

Get to know me

  1. Born and raised in
    Mumbai, India
  2. My happy place
    our riverside house
    Pink sunset over the river behind Ketaki's house
  3. Chai or coffee?
    • Coffee(my answer)
    • Chai(my answer)+ biscuit hits home
    A cup of chai and a plate of biscuits on a deck above the river
  4. Favorite season
    • Mumbai monsoon
    • Iowa fall(my answer)
    • Snow days
    • Summer on the river
    Ketaki's family laughing under orange fall leaves, her son held upside down
    Ketaki's family and their dog standing in fall leaves
  5. Something Iowa taught me
    small towns have big stories too
    Pedretti's Bakery storefront on Main Street in Elkader, Iowa
  1. Saturday morning, find me
    snuggling with my babies👦🏻👧🏻🐶🐱
  2. Morning person or night owl?
    • Morning person
    • Night owl
    • Depends on the deadline(my answer)
  3. Tool I'd save in a fire
    • My iPad
    • My laptop(my answer)
    • My sketchbook
    • The coffee maker
  4. Newest obsession
    mahjongWednesdays are for Mahj with Moms
    Ketaki and friends smiling around a mahjong table
    Mahjong tiles mid-game on a patterned mat
  5. Passion project I'd love to make
    a cookbook of family recipes

15 years later

Here we are: my husband, our two kids and our pup.

  • Ketaki with her husband, son, daughter and their dog in a tall-grass field
  • Ketaki's son and daughter sitting in the grass with their dog

Software I love

Tools of the trade

I only recommend tools I actually use and pay for myself.

Email

Flodesk 50% off

The email platform I moved to after trying every other one. The newsletters look like somebody designed them, because somebody did. My link gets you 50% off your first year.

Some of these are affiliate links. Same price for you, a little thank-you for me.

Curious if our styles will vibe?

Check out some of my recent work!

Take me there