Carving a path, blazing a trail: Aditi Soni (Service Design MA, 2021)

Aditi Soni is one example of a Royal College of Art (RCA) graduate who has carved out a path in her chosen field. She now works in a role at the UNDP that did not exist before she was tasked with developing it.

Discover Aditi’s journey at the RCA.

Why did you choose the Royal College of Art?

Before studying at the RCA, I worked as a product designer and user researcher. I was learning research methods and collecting good insights, but I realised I didn’t have the necessary understanding to use those insights to actually build the services and experiences people wanted.

I started looking into further study to help take my career to the next level. The RCA Service Design MA course stood out; unlike a lot of courses at the time, it wasn’t restricted to digital products and services. I was also wanting to move away from product design to focus more on social innovation, developing community oriented experiences and services. The RCA course was a good fit, and they also awarded me with a full scholarship to pursue this further.

Where are you now?

I’m now a Service Designer with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Europe and Central Asia, a role that began as an internship during my time at the RCA. That internship turned into a consultancy, then eventually I joined the UNDP full-time as a Service Designer. I’m really honoured, and grateful to the team at UNDP; I’m the first Service Designer in the organisation and have been given the freedom to develop my own practice in this context.

There are so many enjoyable moments in my working life. My job involves a lot of travelling, visiting different cities within the region for workshops, projects, events and much more. I love that I get the opportunity to work both with governments and municipalities and with various UNDP Country Offices in the regions of Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Regardless of the project, the ‘end users’ of my work are always the community, be it the citizens, local bodies or international partners. It’s been four years since I began that first internship, and it’s been wonderful.

Outside of my work with the UNDP, I co-founded an initiative, Young Think Tank, with two of my friends. The core principle of Young Think Tank was to engage young people beyond academics, encouraging them to adopt a design-thinking and social innovation perspective in whatever they do. We started working with schools in the Indian subcontinent and also held a design-thinking summer school for kids. We’ve given young people the opportunity to work on social innovation projects and held workshops about creating impact-oriented careers. Nowadays, we are focusing on building products under the same space to empower kids to learn about things that are usually deprioritised in school, but are very relevant in the day to day lives we live.

What impact has the RCA had on your career?

Receiving that scholarship from the RCA was a major milestone. It was affirmation that what I was striving to do resonated with people, and that the RCA wanted to support someone like me entering the realm of social and public sector innovation.

Industry was 100% part of my course. The way the Service Design MA programme is structured at the RCA, every project that you do is industry-tied. Throughout the course, someone from the council, the private sector, the government, they would come in with a potential project for us to work on and we had the liberty to pick and collaborate based on our interests. We were never stuck in a student bubble – every project had that lens of ‘Can this really happen?’ and ‘Are you thinking in the right direction?’

Service Design helps you become a good storyteller, a skill you can apply across all aspects of your life. You learn to respect other opinions and ways of being without losing yourself. The RCA course expanded my world; introduced me to new cultures, new ways of thinking, new ways of being.

Why study at the RCA?

The RCA introduced me to the most incredible designers, in my cohort and beyond. A lot of my personal and professional relationships have been built through the RCA network of alumni and tutors, and it’s given me access to experts and thought leaders in the field of service design and public sector innovation.

The people are the best thing about the RCA. You always want to check out what other designers are doing, beyond your own course and programme! Collaborate, look outside of your bubble. You’ve got service design which is product-oriented and quite pragmatic, and next door you have textiles and sculpture and painting and fashion. So many different things that happen on one campus.

Sitting inside a room and thinking you want to pursue a certain career is easy. The reality can be very different. The RCA enables you to get a taste of that reality while you study. What’s more, it gives you the flexibility to go beyond the standard course structure, like allowing me to continue my work with the UNDP through my studies. That support definitely helped get me where I am today.

About the RCA Graduate Careers Report 2024

This interview was carried out for the RCA Graduate Careers Report 2024. You can read the report on this webpage.

Between November and December 2023, 1,797 RCA alumni completed a survey about their experiences at the College and where their careers have taken them since graduating. Respondents hold degrees across disciplines and include graduates from before 1980 to 2023. Data gathered from these graduates, along with alumni interviews, reflects the breadth of potential that results from studying at the RCA.