Saurabh Yadav

I walked with a river for 44 km

One morning, I woke up in the small town of Broto, Spain. A dog barked somewhere in the distance, a stranger passed by with a nod, and the sunlight filtered gently through my window. The town felt like a secret kept in stone - old, quiet, complete. It had everything a village could offer: a single pharmacy, two supermarkets, three coffee shops, and four diners. And threading through it all, a river. She cut right through the center - clear, blue, and restless. Beneath the surface, giant boulders shaped her flow, making her tumble and shout in protest. She wasn’t a calm river. She stumbled, crashed, groaned. But she was very much alive. I remembered then why I came here. I had asked ChatGPT where I should hike next in Spain. I wanted to see if nature felt different outside of India - if the trees whispered in other tongues, if the mountains breathed differently. One of the suggestions was the Cola de Caballo hike, part of the GR11 route: a 17 km round-trip beginning at a national park and ending at a waterfall.

I walked with a river for 44 km

One morning, I woke up in the small town of Broto, Spain. A dog barked somewhere in the distance, a stranger passed by with a nod, and the sunlight filtered gently through my window. The town felt like a secret kept in stone - old, quiet, complete. It had everything a village could offer: a single pharmacy, two supermarkets, three coffee shops, and four diners. And threading through it all, a river. She cut right through the center - clear, blue, and restless. Beneath the surface, giant boulders shaped her flow, making her tumble and shout in protest. She wasn’t a calm river. She stumbled, crashed, groaned. But she was very much alive. I remembered then why I came here. I had asked ChatGPT where I should hike next in Spain. I wanted to see if nature felt different outside of India - if the trees whispered in other tongues, if the mountains breathed differently. One of the suggestions was the Cola de Caballo hike, part of the GR11 route: a 17 km round-trip beginning at a national park and ending at a waterfall.

Stepping into freelancing

It was the summer of 2021, I was just about to complete my internship at Axis Bank working on their design system, Subzero. I had the best time working there, good problems but better mentors. It was my last college semester and I had to figure out what to do next. Should I start cold emailing again or should I do something more risky? What did I do? I replied to a tweet. It was Dann Petty’s tweet asking for people to share their portfolios so that prospective clients can discover them. And I got discovered. A few calls later, I started my first freelance gig as a product designer. It’s been 2 years so far and I haven’t looked back since. My advent into freelance was rough, unprepared, and daunting but there were quite a few things that I learned along the way.

Stepping into freelancing

It was the summer of 2021, I was just about to complete my internship at Axis Bank working on their design system, Subzero. I had the best time working there, good problems but better mentors. It was my last college semester and I had to figure out what to do next. Should I start cold emailing again or should I do something more risky? What did I do? I replied to a tweet. It was Dann Petty’s tweet asking for people to share their portfolios so that prospective clients can discover them. And I got discovered. A few calls later, I started my first freelance gig as a product designer. It’s been 2 years so far and I haven’t looked back since. My advent into freelance was rough, unprepared, and daunting but there were quite a few things that I learned along the way.

A survival guide to design systems

The world of design systems is fairly tricky in my limited experience. Design is subjective and systems are complex - that’s not a very attractive pair. Anyone working in design systems would have to work in multiple areas like designing, selling, and advocating for the system. Designing high-quality accessible components, tokens & behaviors is just a small (but essential) part of it. More often than not, people start with design systems and give up on them soon because of the lack of adoption and acceptance by other team members. Why? Because people have inertia in their processes. They won’t change their way of working just because you came up with a new radical idea. It has to solve a problem - be it velocity, consistency, or alignment. The process of building a design system starts way before you create a new Figma file, it starts with people.

A survival guide to design systems

The world of design systems is fairly tricky in my limited experience. Design is subjective and systems are complex - that’s not a very attractive pair. Anyone working in design systems would have to work in multiple areas like designing, selling, and advocating for the system. Designing high-quality accessible components, tokens & behaviors is just a small (but essential) part of it. More often than not, people start with design systems and give up on them soon because of the lack of adoption and acceptance by other team members. Why? Because people have inertia in their processes. They won’t change their way of working just because you came up with a new radical idea. It has to solve a problem - be it velocity, consistency, or alignment. The process of building a design system starts way before you create a new Figma file, it starts with people.

Travelling light

Two years ago, I went on a week long trip to Istanbul with a laptop backpack and a trolley. I ended up using only a small part of the clothes I took, which led me to realise - maybe I don’t need to carry as much. So over the years doing multiple trips, both domestic and international, I’ve refined my travel rituals to a very comfortable spot for me, travelling with a 25L backpack wherever I go. My introduction to onebagging came through minimalism, and it makes sense since both are just approaches to reduce dependencies and being intentional, the former in life and the latter in travelling. The first effect of having a light set of luggage is increased (physical) mobility. All you need to think about the bag on your back. Transport is easier since you haul it on your back and go about the day as if you’re walking. When travelling solo, I prefer to take two-wheeler options rather than a cab. My motion-sickness might have me biased but I get to experience more of the environment when I can see it without being inside a tin can. Once I had to run almost a kilometer while catching a connecting flight at the Paris airport since the immigration check took so long. To the point that there were no buses left to take me there so I had to run to the plane itself. If I had a trolley with me, I would’ve missed out on one of the best experiences of my life. Second is mental mobility, you become more open to spontaneous plans be it changing your stay or changing cities. I use this as a catch all excuse to plan my trip once I land in the city/village, live the place once and then see it. More benefits include not having to wait for your stuff in baggage claims and less decision fatigue.

Travelling light

Two years ago, I went on a week long trip to Istanbul with a laptop backpack and a trolley. I ended up using only a small part of the clothes I took, which led me to realise - maybe I don’t need to carry as much. So over the years doing multiple trips, both domestic and international, I’ve refined my travel rituals to a very comfortable spot for me, travelling with a 25L backpack wherever I go. My introduction to onebagging came through minimalism, and it makes sense since both are just approaches to reduce dependencies and being intentional, the former in life and the latter in travelling. The first effect of having a light set of luggage is increased (physical) mobility. All you need to think about the bag on your back. Transport is easier since you haul it on your back and go about the day as if you’re walking. When travelling solo, I prefer to take two-wheeler options rather than a cab. My motion-sickness might have me biased but I get to experience more of the environment when I can see it without being inside a tin can. Once I had to run almost a kilometer while catching a connecting flight at the Paris airport since the immigration check took so long. To the point that there were no buses left to take me there so I had to run to the plane itself. If I had a trolley with me, I would’ve missed out on one of the best experiences of my life. Second is mental mobility, you become more open to spontaneous plans be it changing your stay or changing cities. I use this as a catch all excuse to plan my trip once I land in the city/village, live the place once and then see it. More benefits include not having to wait for your stuff in baggage claims and less decision fatigue.

Enjoying efforts

We keep hearing that the journey is better than the destination. I agree but what I wonder is why no one ever says the same principle about other situations. Is playing a sport better than winning the game? Is the drive better than reaching the store? Is baking a cake better than the cake itself. Well, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. I was recently talking to a friend of mine and the conversation steered into what smartphone she would buy in the coming days. Turns out she was planning to NOT get her desired phone just because she didn’t get a good bonus. I was baffled because I know she doesn’t need an extra bonus to get that device. She felt that her bonus is a metric to evaluate if she deserves the device or not. For her the results, sadly, far outweighed the effort she put into her work.

Enjoying efforts

We keep hearing that the journey is better than the destination. I agree but what I wonder is why no one ever says the same principle about other situations. Is playing a sport better than winning the game? Is the drive better than reaching the store? Is baking a cake better than the cake itself. Well, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. I was recently talking to a friend of mine and the conversation steered into what smartphone she would buy in the coming days. Turns out she was planning to NOT get her desired phone just because she didn’t get a good bonus. I was baffled because I know she doesn’t need an extra bonus to get that device. She felt that her bonus is a metric to evaluate if she deserves the device or not. For her the results, sadly, far outweighed the effort she put into her work.

Hi, I'm Saurabh, an independent designer helping startups
scale their design language or build one from the ground up.
Currently doing product, design & systems at Primer.

I'm Saurabh, an independent designer
helping startups scale their design
language or build one from the ground
up. Currently doing product, design &
systems at Primer.

If you're looking for a designer & my craft resonates with you,
my email is always open for interesting conversations.

If you're looking for a designer & my craft
resonates with you, my email is always
open for interesting conversations.

Hi, I'm Saurabh, an independent designer helping startupsscale their design language or build one from the ground up.Currently doing product, design & systems at Primer.

I'm Saurabh, an independent designerhelping startups scale their designlanguage or build one from the groundup. Currently doing product, design &systems at Primer.

If you're looking for a designer & my craft resonates with you,my email is always open for interesting conversations.

If you're looking for a designer & my craftresonates with you, my email is alwaysopen for interesting conversations.

Hi, I'm Saurabh, an independent designer helping startups
scale their design language or build one from the ground up.
Currently doing product, design & systems at Primer.

I'm Saurabh, an independent designer
helping startups scale their design
language or build one from the ground
up. Currently doing product, design &
systems at Primer.

If you're looking for a designer & my craft resonates with you,
my email is always open for interesting conversations.

If you're looking for a designer & my craft
resonates with you, my email is always
open for interesting conversations.