Hello MoreSleep.

My name is Bharadwaj Kulkarni, but my friends have called me “Bawa” since I can remember. So please, call me Bawa. I’m very excited to be applying to the Digital Designer position at MoreSleep!

Three years ago, I moved to Munich to do my masters in industrial design at TUM after having studied mechanical engineering in India. The course was challenging—especially because the medium of instruction was German that I had to learn quickly—but it was life-changing. I’ve seen myself evolve from a mechanical engineer to an industrial designer to an experience designer to what I can only call a “holistic designer”. Aside from the regular lectures and courses, every semester we were encouraged to work with real world start-ups and companies, on real world problems. During the evaluation of our projects, the question asked was often not what we designed, but why we designed it.

In the last three years, I’ve worked on multiple projects that have been wide-ranging in terms of their deliverables. Each project had its own requirements, and I was encouraged to push past the competencies I came in with. I’ve worked on a film/augmented reality museum installation, the industrial design of a robot arm, an animated product explainer video for a robotics company, the user interface of a web app for an IoT startup and developing a methodology for researching the emotional aspects of sustainability. I’m currently working on the UI/UX design of a podcast app for “power listeners”. I had to learn most of the hard skills required for these projects on the go. But when I look back, I realise that the common thread was that it was always about communication. Design is all about storytelling. I translate this passion for storytelling into clean, intuitive design that clearly illustrates functionality and brand aesthetic.

I loved the work you’ve done so far—especially your project with the Mauermuseum. I know from personal experience how difficult creating designs for museums can be and your website has turned out really well! But more than just your work, I love the overall vibe of MoreSleep. You have a confident style which makes your work unique but also very comforting in its authenticity. This is what I’m striving to achieve in my work. My insight is that my work needs a little more art direction to take it to the next level. While I’m working on this on my own and see some improvement, I think I’ll great benefit from mentors and co-workers in this aspect. This is why I’m excited to work with the art directors with such good taste at MoreSleep.

All of these projects that I’ve talked about doing were done in multi-disciplinary teams (except Highlighting Audio). I’m a naturally curious person, which I find almost always leads to empathy. I enjoy seeing patterns in other fields and spotting the same ones in my interests. This means that I’m drawn to not only understand other points of view but also to help people voice these points of view. I like being in a culture where everybody looks to succeed together. From going through your website, this is the culture that I expect to find, and I’m very excited about it. I’m also looking forward to moving to Berlin. I’ve wanted to do that ever since I moved to Germany three years ago. (And if there are some trips to LA in my future, I’ll take that as an added perk.)

I’m looking forward to getting to know all of you soon. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Best regards,

Bawa Kulkarni