Nina is a happy designer and writer in San Francisco. She's a devout backpacker, techno enthusiast and makes the internet go at Twilio.

Twenty things Nina likes

airports backpacking berlin chipotle corny jokes the cosby show developers doner kebab farmers' markets grammar the guardian the news political theory radiolab rhythm tall buildings techno the tube map typography wine

Oh, the places you'll go!

Nina believes smart engineering and smart design can help enhance the human experience and empower people to build and create in our global community.

Places I've Studied

HCId Master's at Indiana University
Journalism at Indiana University
Political Science at Indiana University
Political Science at City University, London
Media at Poynter Institute, St. Petersburg Florida
Independent research, Botswana & South Africa

Places I've worked in tech

Twilio, San Francisco
SigFig, San Francisco
Milewise, NYC via SF
myGengo, Tokyo
RockMelt, Mountain View
Epolitix.com, London

Places I've worked in Indiana

Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis

IU School of Journalism

IU Office for Women's Affairs

Kinsey Institute for Sex Research

Oliver Winery

Inside Magazine {founder}

Awards

2007 SND: 2nd Student magazine
2007 SND MSU: Mention for special sections
2007 ICPA: 1st in Design
2007 ICPA: 2nd Story design, 3rd news design
2006 SND Intern Competition: top 5 finalist
2006 SPJ: 1st Photo illustration
2006 SPJ: 1st Student magazine

Scholarships & Fellowships

2008 Russel B. Pulliam Fellowship
2008 Poynter Fellowship
2007 Eugene C. Pulliam Scholarship
2007 Robin Avi Scholarship for Design
2007 Siddons IDS Scholarship
2006 IU Journalism Travel Scholarship

Press

Download Resume »

Storytime! A little more about Nina

Nina works and plays at Twilio, flipping the telephony industry on its head. She came to Twilio from startups disrupting translation, investing, travel booking and how we browse the web. She saw opportunity for reinvention in the news industry while working as a journalist. Thus she pursued a Master's in Human-Computer Interaction design to research media.

Nina is newly fiddling with VJ software to learn more about live visuals and light design. She's looking to expand her understanding of human interactions in spaces with lights and sounds. She also hopes to contribute to the music community that helped draw her to San Francisco.

Though happy in San Francisco, Nina celebrates her Chicago roots, Indian heritage and defacto Hoosier status. She's studied classical music for over 10 years and has taken courses in improv theater, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and letterpressing. She's floats sensory depravation chambers, jumps out of airplanes and just really truly loves The Cosby Show.

Projects

Nina loves to work and she loves to play. Sometimes they're the same thing.

Opening up the black box of telephony at Twilio

I work at Twilio now--I'm a designer there! We make an API tool so developers build powerful apps that use voice, SMS and VoIP communication fast and well. I'm doing all kinds of fun stuff at Twilio.

See what I do at Twilio »

OmGenie will give you what you want

OmGenie is inspired by a 2-person meditation exercise where one person asks for what they want and the other says " you can have it" and affirms the desire. Text (415) 683 7914 and try it out. Learn more about Omgenie »

This meditation app might help you:

Inspire explicit and sub-concious productive action
Exhaust you from material and ego-driven desires
Be happy

Reinventing the browser at RockMelt

I was RockMelt's first design intern. I spent the summer working product features like the friend chat window, building up parts of the site from sketch to code, coordinating usability sessions and working with developers to prepare for the alpha launch. RockMelt, Inc. is and was backed by Andreessen and Horowitz. Our team worked quietly, quickly and had a blast doing it.

See what I did at RockMelt »

Book better flights with Milewise

Milewise helps travelers book the best flights at the best value. It gathers your frequent flier data and suggests which flights have the best price at cash value, something that is otherwise quite difficult to figure out. During this project I worked with Milewise in New York, from San Francisco, to do some quick and dirty rework to help their customers book better flights.

See what I did at Milewise »

Deliniation: Professional Development for Interaction Designers

Year after year, HCId Master's students had consistent questions about their professional identity as interaction designers. Classmate, Wes Michaels, and I designed a response for our peers. Through research and interviews with alums, professionals, IU staff, faculty and of course students, we learned what questions our peers had and a baseline way answer the question.

The book is now endorsed and hosted by Indiana University and distributed to incoming HCI Master's students.

Download the book »

Indy.com | North American Music Festival Guide

2008 Music Festival Guide

This self-started graphic was built for young music-savvy travelers at Indy.com for The Indianapolis Star. The map launched before the summer music festival season inspired by a debate in our message boards whether it was worth traveling to Lollapalooza in Chicago. I collected data for ticket costs, gas estimates, distances and festival information and worked with the editorial and marketing departments for the launch.This GoogleMap API uses javascript and css to guide Indy.com readers to the best music festivals around North America.

See the map bigger »
(Pardon their redesigned) Play with the live map »

The Web that Binds Us

As a founder of this magazine, I served as Art Diretor for this magazine and this layout that won multiple awards from SND and SPJ in its first year. The reporter (left) spent a week off line to explore whether it was better than being connected. We are the last generation to truly know a life with and without internet--are we happier bound? Produced in 2006 as a founding member of Inside Magazine.

Read the story »
See the layout »

Call of Duty

I worked closely on the edits and layout with award winning photographer Aaron Berstein in the role of students at Indiana University's ROTC. The goal here is be thoughtful about the design and let the photographs and narrative tell the story, not the design. Produced in 2006 as a founding member of Inside Magazine.

Read the story »
See the layout »

'Berlintechno' type specimine book

I designed a type-specimine book based on Adrian Frutiger's slab-serif typeface Gylpha. He created the font in 1979 Germany, a decade before the wall came down. This time and place also was essential to the foundation of Berliner and global electronic music. The book draws photos from top Berlin clubs and quotes from DJs about the electronic music capital of the world. It's designed at 12x12 inches to fit a record sleeve. Watch the video prototype of the soon to be published book.

Watch the video »

'Ten Backpacker Things You Could Do At Home' postcards

I made these postcards on the Indiana Unversity letterpress. I inked, rolled and cut the cards by hand. Both many of my friends and myself, frequent travelers, for one reason or another had to put countless backpacking trips on hold. I made and sent these postcards to remind them adventure is everywhere.

Drop me a message with your post address and I'll mail you a card :)

Watch the slideshow »

Save the Date

I designed a save the date card to be distributed by email to guests. I worked with the Maid of Honor to match the style of the theme, style and bride's wishes.

See the invitation »

Qunito business cards

I worked with Quinto Ott to integrate his newly designed logo into his business cards. He is known and goes by just "Quinto" and wanted to emphasize that and the Q logo in his name.

See the card »

Majority Report Magazine

For two years I served as Assistant Editor for the Office for Women's Affair's annual publication that distributes to the University's entire faculty, staff and female graduate students. I led a content and layout redesign that could scale after my departure to drive awareness and support for the Office. I managed and edited all freelance reporters. Cover (left) designed by Ellis Latham Brown.

Read Majority Report 2011 »
Read Majority Report 2010 »

♥

Nina Mehta

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