MEESHO
Crafting hiring for a billion dreams
MY ROLE:
Freelance
I was brought in as the communications designer for their recruitment website to make it a dynamic and appealing platform to attract top talent.
In India's rapidly growing e-commerce landscape, Meesho aimed to support 100 million small businesses. To realise this vision, they needed a strong team of engineers and tech professionals.
The Challenge: I was tasked with crafting a visual identity for Meesho’s employer brand—one that captured both the scale and complexity of its mission: democratising entrepreneurship across India. While the product was designed for the masses, the initial creative direction focused on a larger narrative—telling the story of India’s growth and nation-building within the brand’s identity.
Meesho's Brand Language
Meesho's brand language was product-oriented and needed more flexibility for the visual story-telling for the website The initial inspiration for the design style was Indian retro style based on traditional Indian communities that Meesho was enabling in digital commerce.
I prepared initial illustrations and animation samples for this visual style.
Style changes and feedback
While the commercial design effectively targeted general audiences, the recruitment design language needed to appeal specifically to urban-educated tech professionals who might not connect with traditional and cultural design elements.
On testing the design with employees within the org, it did not feel relatable to them.
The redefined brief: Convincing urban engineers that Meesho wasn’t just a "small-town startup"—but a high-impact tech challenge. Many saw it as a brand with utilitarian, non-cutting-edge aesthetics, lacking the sleek, aspirational appeal of consumer tech giants. This perception needed to change. The reality? Engineering at Meesho meant tackling massive, complex challenges of scale, infrastructure, and innovation—demanding the same level of technical excellence as the most polished, design-forward companies in the industry.
The new color palette and visual style resonated with the target audience, but senior leadership had divergent opinions on its final direction. Despite tight timelines, there was a strong push for a more distinctive and novel visual approach. To meet this expectation, I explored a 3D adaptation of the approved style—a bold aesthetic choice that set Meesho apart from other regional tech companies.
With limited time, we committed to this direction, bringing in an additional designer for 3D asset creation, whom I managed. To accelerate the process, we purchased and customized select 3D design elements, ensuring efficiency without compromising originality. This bold, distinctive approach resonated strongly with our target audience, earning recognition and appreciation upon launch.
Impact & changes
Meesho, a product designed for India’s tier 2/3/4 markets, was competing for top talent in tier 1 cities—especially Bangalore, the heart of India’s tech ecosystem. Historically, its employer branding and aesthetics didn’t resonate with the design and engineering talent it sought to attract.
With our strategic redesign, that changed.
Within just 72 hours of launching the site, we successfully attracted ~1000 applications, demonstrating the immediate impact and effectiveness of our design.
Since the initial rollout, Meesho underwent a full brand refresh, updating colours and visual identity across platforms. Despite these changes, the employer brand design assets we created remained intact, underscoring their strategic and aesthetic longevity. As the brand evolved, future design teams adapted our original work, integrating the updated branding elements while preserving core design assets. Notably, AI was later introduced to enhance the blog and leadership features sections.
The following pages highlight how our foundational designs—including animations and UI components—were maintained, with only blog images and the leaders' section being modified from the original aesthetic I'd designed.