Larika Mallier
As a designer, I strive for self-awareness and remain curious about what I don't know I don't know. I see our individual bubbles being rich with unique lived experience, and intentionally bursting them as necessary for growth.
*The image is an AI generated conceptual self-portrait
using a combination of Midjourney & Adobe Firefly.*
Hi, I'm Larika, your friendly neighborhood creative.
I've spent the last decade and change moving between design worlds (architecture, interaction design, experience strategy) and between countries, starting in India and landing in San Francisco. The thread through all of it is the same question: how do people actually experience the spaces and systems we build for them? And what happens when we design those things with more care?
Right now, I'm an Experience Designer on Gensler's Digital Experience Design (DXD) team, part of a crew that sits at the intersection of physical space, digital experience, and emerging tech. I've worked with Adobe (IIDA 2025 Honoree), LG Display, Proofpoint, Deloitte, Intuit, and others, designing experiences that range from immersive storytelling to the nuts and bolts of how a room full of people interacts with a screen. I'm CPACC certified because equitable design isn't a nice-to-have; it's the point.
I also contributed to a Gensler Research Institute study on how technology can make hybrid meetings more fair, not just more functional. You can read the paper here ~ Equity Through Design: How To Improve Hybrid Meetings.
Before all this, I was an architect. I started in Mumbai with Sanjay Puri Architects and did two stints with Kunaal Seolekar's studioHAUS in Pune, where I was part of the founding team. We built work that showed up in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, and ArchDaily, and exhibited at India Design ID Delhi, Ambiente Frankfurt, and Maison et Objet in Paris with The Koy Store.
Somewhere along the way, I got more interested in the people inside the buildings. The quirks of how we behave, the systems we move through, the technology quietly reshaping our daily lives. So I went back to school for an MDes in Interaction Design at California College of the Arts. At CCA I got serious about UX, strategy, and systems thinking, and spent time designing for social impact with organizations like Caravan Studios and Acta Non Verba: Youth Urban Farm Project, where I served as a board member.
After graduating, I wanted a team where thinking across disciplines wasn't unusual; It was the job. Through some persistence, good timing, and a pandemic that somehow didn't derail everything, I found that at Gensler's DXD team.
Outside of work, I write, I do improv, I moonlight as an undercover spoken-word poet, and I take art supplies to parks and invite strangers to draw in the sun. I curate playlists like they're a life practice. And I'm always interested in a good conversation over a meal.
Here's a range of research and experimentation I did as a curious student (2019-2020)
Living in progress.