Become a Storyboard Artist.

Design how digital products work — not just how they look. UX Designers conduct user research, build information architecture, sketch user flows, prototype interactions, and run usability tests to turn messy human problems into intuitive, evidence-backed product experiences. They sit at the intersection of product, engineering, and research, owning the journey from first user interview to final dev handoff. Distinct from UI designers (visual surface), product designers (broader strategic remit), and graphic designers (brand and marketing assets).

UX Writers own the words inside software products — button labels, error messages, empty states, onboarding flows, tooltips, confirmation dialogs, and loading states. Unlike content writers who produce blog posts or marketing copy, UX writers work inside Figma files alongside designers and PMs, writing copy that is functional and must work at 2–10 word constraints. In India the role has moved from a rarity to a listed job at Razorpay, CRED, Swiggy, Zomato, PhonePe, Meesho, GoodGlamm, and the FAANG India offices — companies that discovered that poorly-worded error states double support ticket volume and that a single word change on a payment CTA can shift conversion by 8–15%. The discipline sits at the intersection of linguistics, cognitive psychology, and product design, and is increasingly called 'content design' at more mature orgs to signal the strategic, system-thinking scope of the work.

Writers in India work across an unusually wide span — journalism at legacy outlets (The Hindu, Times of India, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, The Print, Mint, Business Standard, Economic Times, Caravan, Outlook, India Today) and digital-native publishers (Newslaundry, Scroll, The Wire, Quint, Moneycontrol, ThePrint Strategic Affairs); novel and non-fiction publishing at HarperCollins India, Penguin Random House India, Westland (Amazon-owned), Juggernaut, Bloomsbury India, Aleph, Pan Macmillan India; scriptwriting for Bollywood (₹5L-2Cr per major script) and OTT (Netflix India, Amazon Prime Video India, Disney+ Hotstar — paying ₹3-30L per episode of premium streaming series); content writing for marketing teams (corporate brand voice, B2B SaaS content, EdTech curriculum, fintech narratives); copywriting at ad agencies (Wieden+Kennedy India, Ogilvy India, Lowe Lintas, BBDO, Leo Burnett); ghostwriting for celebrity / business / political memoirs; and increasingly Substack / Medium / personal-brand newsletter writing (Aakar Patel, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Andy Mukherjee, Madhavankutty Pillai have built independent media). The Indian path requires no specific degree — journalism programs at Asian College of Journalism Chennai, Indian Institute of Mass Communication Delhi, Symbiosis Institute of Media Pune, Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media Bangalore, Xavier Institute of Communications Mumbai are the formal training tracks, but most successful Indian writers built careers through self-taught practice and persistent publication. Pay varies wildly: journalism ₹4-15L mid-career; published novel advance ₹2-30L (Penguin / HarperCollins / Westland — rare ₹50L+ exceptions for established authors); Bollywood / OTT scriptwriter ₹5L-2Cr per script; content writing ₹3-15L corporate; copywriting ad-agency ₹4-25L; freelance content writers ₹40k-3L per month variable; top Substack writers / newsletter founders ₹30L-2Cr annually.

Graphic Designers shape how a brand looks, feels and communicates across every visual surface — packaging on a Reliance Smart shelf, an Instagram reel for a D2C launch, a billboard at the Mumbai airport, the title card of a Netflix India show, the typography on an Amul ad, or the icon set inside a Razorpay onboarding flow. They translate brand strategy and marketing briefs into visual systems: logos, color palettes, type pairings, illustration, layout, motion, and packaging. In India, graphic design careers split into three contexts. (1) Agencies — Wieden+Kennedy, Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Lowe Lintas, Dentsu Webchutney, FCB, BBH; lower starting pay, broader portfolio, fast-paced, account-driven. (2) In-house at consumer brands — Nykaa, Mamaearth, Sugar, boAt, Lenskart, Asian Paints, ITC, HUL; deeper brand-system work, more stable schedule, higher pay at senior levels. (3) Freelance / studio — independent operators serving multiple D2C and startup clients. Distinct from UX/UI Designers (digital product flows), Industrial Designers (3D physical product), and Illustrators (one specific craft within graphic design).

Illustrators make pictures with intent — editorial spot illustrations for The Caravan or Mint, brand mascots and visual systems for D2C startups, children's book art, app onboarding illustrations, packaging, posters, fashion prints, and social-media motion-friendly art. Distinct from graphic designers (who arrange type and image inside a system) and from animators (who add the time dimension), illustrators own the still image — concept, drawing, colour, mood, and personality — usually in Procreate, Photoshop, or Adobe Illustrator on an iPad or Wacom tablet. India's illustrator economy is split across editorial (publications, op-eds, magazine spreads), publishing (Tara Books, Pratham, Tulika, Karadi Tales for children's books — Penguin India and HarperCollins India for adult fiction), brand work (D2C startups, ed-tech, fintech), and a fast-growing in-house illustration team trend at companies like Headspace-style apps, Zomato, Swiggy, and Cred. Most working illustrators in India are freelance, with 1-3 anchor retainer clients balancing per-project work.

Public Relations Specialists in India build and protect brand reputations for corporations, startups, founders, celebrities, and government clients. The biggest PR agencies serve clients across BFSI, tech, FMCG, pharma, and auto sectors — Adfactors PR (India's largest), Genesis BCW, Edelman India, Avian WE, Weber Shandwick India, MSL India, The Practice India, Ruder Finn India, and Concept PR. Day-to-day involves drafting press releases and pitch notes, managing media relationships (Mint, ET, Business Standard, CNBC-TV18, ET Now, Bloomberg Quint), crisis communication, founder-led PR for startups (especially during fundraises and IPOs), thought-leadership placement (Op-eds, podcast bookings, conference speaking), and increasingly digital + influencer + social-listening work. Entry path: BA/MA in mass communication or MBA, followed by 2-4 years as PR executive → Account Executive → Account Manager → Sr. AM → Account Director → VP/Group Head. Founder-led startup PR is one of the fastest-growing segments — every unicorn and Series-B+ startup retains PR support.

Packaging Designers in India translate brand positioning into physical containers and printed surfaces — the mono-carton for a Britannia biscuit, the label architecture on a Mamaearth serum bottle, the D2C shipper box that opens the unboxing moment for a BoldCare order. The role sits at the intersection of graphic design, structural engineering, print production, and regulatory compliance: every pack must look right on the retail shelf, survive cold-chain or courier transit, carry mandatory FSSAI or BIS declarations, and be printable within the supplier's flexo or gravure constraints. In India, the discipline is driven by three employment contexts — FMCG in-house teams (HUL, ITC, Nestle, Britannia, Dabur, Emami), funded D2C brands (Mamaearth, Sugar Cosmetics, Plum, Beardo, MyMuse), and specialist packaging studios (Elephant Design Pune, Lopez Design Delhi, Codesign Mumbai). Entry is open to visual-communication or product-design graduates; the career ceiling is Head of Packaging or Creative Director at a major FMCG.

Senior: N/A

Art Directors (Film) are the execution arm of the Art Department — translating the Production Designer's visual concept into physical reality on the studio floor and on location. While the PD owns the design vision and interfaces with the director and DOP, the AD runs the department's day-to-day operations: briefing set construction crews (carpenters, painters, plasterers, ironworkers), coordinating the swing gang for overnight set strikes and turnarounds, sourcing and tracking props, supervising the set decorator, and maintaining visual continuity across shoot days. In India, experienced ADs work under Production Designers like Sabu Cyril (RRR, Baahubali, KGF Chapter 2), Subrata Chakraborty (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Devdas, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham), and Shashank Tiwari (Gangs of Wasseypur, Mirzapur) — learning to execute at scale across single-camera dramas, action spectacles, and OTT originals for Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ Hotstar. The AD-to-PD career path is clearly defined and entirely craft-driven: there is no shortcut around the years spent on the construction floor.

Senior: N/A

Landscape Architects in India design the outdoor environments of urban parks, resort destinations, corporate campuses, mixed-use townships, and public plazas — translating a grading survey and drainage brief into a finished composition of native planting, stone hardscape, water features, and irrigated soft zones. The professional pool is small and tightly networked: M.Shaheer Associates (Mohammed Shaheer, designer of Lodhi Garden restoration and Sabarmati Riverfront), Integral Designs, and Design Cell are the studio benchmarks, while CEPT University, School of Planning and Architecture Delhi, and IIT-Kharagpur landscape programmes supply most of the formal graduate entrants. The post-graduate M.L.A. (Master of Landscape Architecture) is the preferred qualification for studios working at urban-design scale; B.Arch or B.Plan graduates with landscape specialisation enter at junior drafter level. Work is inherently site-specific and field-heavy — expect split weeks between AutoCAD and Revit in the studio and site visits for grading sign-offs, plant inspections, and civil coordination.

Senior: N/A

Design Systems Engineers own the React (or Vue/SwiftUI) component library, design token pipeline, and documentation infrastructure that every product team builds on. The role sits squarely at the intersection of design and engineering: you translate Figma variables and Tokens Studio exports into Style Dictionary token transforms, maintain Storybook with Chromatic visual-regression baselines, enforce ARIA and axe-core accessibility contracts, and govern versioned releases via Changesets. In India, dedicated DSE roles exist at Razorpay (Blade design system), PhonePe, Cred, Swiggy, Flipkart, and at global product companies with India engineering hubs — Shopify India, Atlassian India, and GitHub India all run active design-systems squads. The role demands rare fluency in both design judgment and production-grade TypeScript; a pure frontend engineer who can't critique token semantics and a pure designer who can't write a compound component with polymorphic types will both hit a ceiling here.

Senior: N/A

Classical musicians in India are performers, educators, and cultural custodians operating within the Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian) traditions — two of the world's most sophisticated oral-transmission music systems. A Hindustani sitarist or khayal vocalist develops within a gharana lineage (Jaipur-Atrauli, Kirana, Dilli, Agra, Gwalior) through the guru-shishya parampara, earning performance rights at festivals like Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav (Pune), Saptak Festival (Ahmedabad), and Dover Lane Music Conference (Kolkata). Carnatic musicians anchor their careers on the December season at the Music Academy Madras — a 6-week festival circuit across Chennai's sabhas where reputation is built concert by concert, adjudicated by rasikas (connoisseurs) who have followed the artform for generations. Income is tripartite: performance fees from concert organisers and festival trusts, teaching income from disciples and institutional appointments, and ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations) foreign tours where the government sponsors artists abroad as cultural ambassadors.

Senior: N/A