Correction: The original version of the article posted on May 31 contained some errors, which have been corrected below. Ragini Samgameswara updated the Cupertino Historical Society's logo by adding the text around the center image. Samgameswara attended animation classes at Apple, and her son was the co-editor at Monta Vista and now attends college. We apologize for any confusion.
Ragini Samgameswara’s design work doesn’t always sail far from her Cupertino home.
If you’ve ever seen colorful street banners strewn across Stevens Creek Boulevard or decorative menus at a local Cupertino bakery you may have seen her graphics work.
Sangameswara has a talent for designing for web, print, and media and has designed a website for the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce, pieced together articles for the Cupertino Monthly Newsletter and updated the logo for the Cupertino Historical Society by adding the text around the center image.
Born in India, the 24 years Sangameswara has lived in Cupertino lead her to consider herself a Cupertino native.
Coming from a family involved in the arts where her father was an author and poet and a mother that worked with literature, Sangameswara easily found her calling in life as a graphics designer creating works of art.
“Designing is my passion,” said Sangameswara.
Sangameswara follows five core steps in producing her graphic designs: Defining her work, researching, brainstorming ideas, producing her project and making final modifications to the finished product. All of these steps took part in transforming the old Cupertino Historical Society’s logo into the fresh, current one.
“They gave me specifications, like there had to be a seal,” said Sangameswara. “What people take out of the image matters and then I sit down and produce it.” She adds that freedom to create makes her job easier and more enjoyable.
Before the transformation into the current logo today, the seal of the was one that “looked more like warriors,” recalls Sangameswara. Now the logo symbolizes the early explorers of Cupertino and the circular text surrounding it is fashioned by Sangameswara’s handiwork.
, president of the Cupertino Historical Society, has known Sangameswara for years and said she is “professional, competent, welcoming and talented.” “Ragini does a fantastic job of graphic design. She is a wizard with computers,” said Austin.
“She has done a great job making our website accessible and attractive to the public,” said Gail Fretwell-Hugger, board member of Cupertino Historical Society. “I love how enthusiastic Ragini is about all the aspects of her job and her great ideas for every project.”
Sangameswara says she doesn’t think designing for one medium between web, print and design is easier but prefers to work with print. Whether its invitations, brochures or flyers, Sangameswara’s creative spark lights up brightest when a project is to be made from scratch and it really shows in her work.
“I think, at the core, how I communicate the idea that is given to me whether its web, media, or print, that is the challenging idea,” said Sangameswara. She says that sitting in front of the computer and creating something is easy, but the hard part is “conveying” the right idea to the viewer. “Modifying the final version can be a back and forth process,” she adds.
Programs Sangameswara use include specialty graphic design applications such as Dreamweaver, InDesign and QuarkXPress. She garnered most of her technical skills as a mom while studying at De Anza College on top of animation courses at Apple where her husband worked. “Apple used to offer animation classes and just a few sessions for spouses,” says Sangameswara.
Her son was the co-editor for the Monta Vista High School newspaper and is now a sophomore at UCSC, Sangameswara plans to continue building and supporting the family fluency in literature, the arts and most importantly the quality of her graphics designs.
