Ravi Vasavan

Ravi Vasavan is an artist and designer. Creating beautiful, unique and impactful art, brand and digital experiences for the new era. Currently, he spearheads design and strategy at Convo, where his passion for melding design with technology and his dedication to social impact converge.

Previously he worked at Koto, for six years, an “optimistic group of designers, strategists, and writers helping the world's best brands become even better.” They have offices in Berlin, London, Los Angeles and Sydney. (Ravi worked in the London one.) During his time there, he's had the pleasure of working with a mix of startups, established brands and artificial intelligence.

Born deaf to deaf parents, Ravi grew up in Australia immersed in deaf community, which has influenced his perspective and worldview. He knew two sign languages before English. You could say that Auslan (Australian Sign Language) is his ‘mother tongue’ — or perhaps ‘fingers’? (Semantics.)

Being visually oriented by nature, he was attracted to art and design early on, which led to his current career and practice. In his work, he is able to bring a deaf perspective, particularly when it comes to (often hearing-oriented) accessibility, inclusivity and strategic thinking in art and design.

In 2020 he was part of the first cohort at Rare with Google, a program for underrepresented future creative leaders who wish to fundamentally change the creative industries for the better. He gives talks on the intersection between deafness and design, and the importance of preserving your own unique perspective.

When not doing any of that, he spends his time making perfectly leoparded pizza dough, biking across the vast Australian landscape, or camping with his partner and dog, Emma & Joey. Ravi collaborates with deaf creatives on various deaf-led initiatives and he is actively involved in many IRL and online communities, and serves as a founding member of Deaf Arts Residency, an Australian based collective with the aim of nurturing and growing the deaf arts scene in Australia.