Design Without Boundaries: Preeti Ayyangar
February 2025
Yixiao Zhang
“Design without boundaries.” This philosophy guides Preeti Ayyangar, an Atlanta-based graphic designer and dedicated design educator with over two decades of experience at Miami Ad School Atlanta @ Portfolio Center. In an interview with Design Bloc, Ayyangar shared the motivation behind her design career and her teaching principles throughout her journey.
Preeti Ayyangar’s design journey began unconventionally in early 1990s Chennai, India. Initially holding a science diploma in an environment where design programs were hard to find, her entry into the creative field was as an account executive at an advertising agency. While account executive was a management role, Ayyangar was exposed to crucial hands-on experience assisting designers during busy periods. This experience sparked a passion, leading her to proactively self-teach and approach a studio owner with a bold proposal: “I don’t have a background in design but I’m willing to get trained to be a graphic designer while working as an account executive.” After successfully transitioning to a designer role, Ayyangar sought to formalize her skills. Moving to the US in 1996, she enrolled at the Portfolio Center (later Miami Ad School) in Atlanta. “A lot of my work was intuitive, but I needed a bit more structure,” she explained.
This structure, however, didn’t confine Ayyangar; instead, it further empowered her practice of design without boundaries. Since the early 2000s, she has worn multiple hats, choosing a path different from the conventional agency ladder. “I haven’t worked in an agency full time,” she shared, “And I’m glad for that because if I had, I wouldn’t be doing hands-on graphic design... the way I’m still doing now.” As a freelance graphic designer working independently and collaborating with agencies, Ayyangar has served notable clients like AT&T, Bank of America, Chick-fil-A, Delta Airlines, and Equifax. Her work for them spans campaigns, brand identity, advertising, packaging, infographics, and other brand touch points. At the same time, she co-founded The Beehive Atlanta, a design co-op where she extended her role into space branding, mentoring, and business management.
Her boundary-crossing philosophy also permeated her teaching methodology. During her 20 years teaching at the Miami Ad School Atlanta, she emphasized that meticulous craft was the essential foundation. “You still need to craft it,” she insisted, “You still need to make that type right. You still need to put that on a grid... You still need negative space.” She believed that taking time to establish these fundamentals early allows them to become intuitive later. Building upon this solid base of craft, she then pushed students with deep research. She described a typical challenge: “If you’re going to research the Beatles, like I want to see a two-page paper on it. And after that, you’re going to research Bach... And then I would need a third paper where you’re connecting the Beatles to Bach... and coming up with your own original idea.” This process of research and synthesis was core to cultivating cross-disciplinary thinking, and it challenges students to create unique insights that “no Pinterest board is going to show.”
Preeti Ayyangar’s journey shows what’s possible when passion isn’t hindered by convention. She deliberately chose a non-traditional design career, finding fulfillment in various occupations. Her teaching style also mirrored this, pushing students beyond the superficial. Through all her roles, Ayyangar remains driven by the passion she identified: “I knew I was gonna design for the rest of my life. It didn’t matter where I was doing it from.”
