1.

Leadership and influence

Chevening is looking for individuals who will be future leaders or influencers in their home
countries. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your own leadership
and influencing skills to support your answer.

My view of a leadership role is like the roots of a tree, each path leading to diverging futures,
based on the decisions made at each intersection. A team can go down any path based on the
decisions made by the leader. From being a Section Commander in a Cadet College to being a
Head of Design in a Society during my undergraduate degree, I have experienced multiple
leadership roles and have effectively performed in them.

While studying at the Cadet College, I was appointed as a Section Commander to a junior wing
as a result of my academic and physical performances. I had 72 boys under my wing and I took
responsibility for their daily schedules, monitored their physical training regimens, and solved
their interpersonal conflicts by forming clear communication channels to address disciplinary
issues. Resultantly, my wing had the best discipline among the junior wings and the boys were
always punctual to their tasks. This one-year experience helped me understand my capabilities,
helped me understand the responsibilities and mentality of a leader and taught me good
management skills.

During my undergraduate degree, the university needed some volunteer designers to arrange a
career fair. I volunteered, built a team of ten, and led them effectively. The work included
developing the theme for the marketing materials, delegating tasks to the team, and being a
good critique and a teacher while also holding meetings and communicating with the event
management body. I handled these tasks using both active and passive methods. I actively
communicated with the event management body and volunteers of other societies through
in-person meetings. I formed a two-team solution to handle the design works. I led a team by
myself and gave the other to another aspiring designer and helped him manage his team
passively whenever he had issues managing them, hence delegating the tasks became faster
and easier. The career fair attracted 200+ companies and resulted in multiple job offers for
students. The university staff was very happy with my team and me. The members of my team
showed a great improvement in their design skills and efficiency. I taught them how to use an
iterative process to achieve the best outcome and it not only helped us in achieving a great
result but also served as a great learning experience for them.

The field of design is not much appreciated in my region and its importance is not understood
here. I want to inspire the next generation of creative thinkers and attract the masses towards it
so that we can raise our regional designers and attract more to perform at an international level.
The mentioned experiences will help me in realising my goals. Through the Chevening Scholars
Community, I wish to broaden my horizons with their global network and enhance my leadership
and managerial skills so that I can give back to my community to the best of my abilities.

(484 Words)

2. Relationship building and shared learning

Chevening is looking for individuals with strong professional relationship-building skills, who will
engage with the Chevening community and influence and lead others in their chosen
profession. Please explain how you build and maintain relationships in a professional capacity,
using clear examples of how you currently do this, and outline how you hope to use these skills
in the future.

A cluster of minds can achieve much more than what an individual mind can fathom. However,
that cluster of minds is never found by luck rather it is gathered and developed.

On joining a media society called “AKS”, a goal was passed down to us by our seniors. It was to
take our society up some levels and make it the best media society in the university. The society
helped me in broadening my social circle. The new relationships I found outside my field of
study helped me see the world from multiple perspectives. Our relationships were based on a
barter of skills and creative thought processes all focused on the same goal. However, building
those relationships was like tasting multiple dishes and then exploring what works together and
what does not. I built my relationship with multiple creative minds which were not restricted to
only designers. It consisted of photographers, videographers, content writers and creative
directors. By combining the individual ideas and skills we successfully arranged and executed
our plans to ascend the levels required to reach the top. On my joining, we had a little less than
4,000 followers on Instagram and a following of 32,000 on Facebook, while when I graduated,
we had reached 11,000 followers on Instagram and 48,000 on Facebook, and it’s all thanks to
our collaborative efforts.

As a designer in a student society, I’ve led other designers and taught them design
coincidentally. I have always been keen to teach what I know, and as a design enthusiast, I felt
obligated to build a community of creative discussion and share what I know with my peers and
also learn from them. When I was a general member, I proposed an idea to my seniors and the
heads of multiple other societies to arrange workshops and explained the benefits of having a
trained design team rather than having students make designs only on an aesthetic basis. The
proposal got approved and I started presenting my design ideas and theories through those
workshops. I started teaching design to fellow peers and juniors and also encouraged them to
share their ideas and knowledge so that a collaborative environment could be fostered. The
feedback was immensely positive and further gave me motivation to research and teach in
design and I was chosen as a head in my final year. Resultantly three of my students are
serving as design heads in multiple societies and are handling their teams very well.

Through the Chevening Scholarship, I wish to dip my feet into a global community and
experience the world. I plan to form an online platform that serves as a hub for designers from
around the world to connect, collaborate, and share their ideas on specific topics and projects.
By facilitating cross-cultural exchanges and knowledge sharing, this platform will foster a more
inclusive and innovative design community.

(477 Words)

3. Studying in the UK

Outline why you have selected your chosen three university courses, and explain how this
relates to your previous academic or professional experience and your plans for the future.
Please enter new information and examples here and not duplicate the information you have
entered on the work experience and education section of this form.

Being praised, from an early age, for my artistic abilities; I found a motivation to turn my hobby
into my profession. To achieve that I chose Product & Industrial Design as my field of study and
discovered Graphic Design and Visual Communication through the academics and co-curricular
activities. My love for the subject just grew more and more till it reached the point of sharing it
with others. It led to a devastating discovery, the field of design is much underdeveloped within
my country. It also led to a new goal and motivation to bring a much-needed change to design
ideology within my region. That’s why I seek a global perspective on how to realise it.

I chose to study ‘MA Visual Communications’ at ‘Royal College of Arts’. My decision is based on
their ideology of design. They focus on transformative movement, connecting people and
pushing boundaries. That perfectly aligns with my research in cultural amalgamation through
design so that designers from different regions can collaborate and create multicultural design
solutions while bridging the gaps between individual design identities to create uncountable new
ones. This will surely help me in inspiring designers of the next generation within my country
and abroad.

I chose to study ‘MA Graphic Design’ at ‘Edinburgh University’ because of their ‘Design Agency
project’, which won the employability initiative category in the Guardian University Awards 2013.
It would enable me to form my own student design agency and collaborate with other students
in an academic and professional manner working towards a common goal. Hence providing me
with much-needed insights to realise my career plans and will help me establish a global
network with people not restricted to my programme.

I chose ‘MA Design (Graphics)’ at ‘Bath Spa University’ for two reasons. One, it is one of three
Adobe Creative Campuses in the UK, which would help me unlock access to the latest software
and AI integrations provided by Adobe and would propel me forward with much acceleration in
my degree. Two, it fosters an interdisciplinary learning environment by providing collaborative
studios to work at. I can engage with creative minds of multiple disciplines. Hence providing me
with much-sought perspectives and ideas from across the board of designers.

All of the above programmes would help me with connecting, collaborating, learning and
networking with creative minds from all over the world, which would really help me understand
different ideologies and individual perspectives of design so that I can better understand and
receive knowledge and information while taking action towards my goals simultaneously.

Moreover, the UK is a hub for people coming from all over the world. I want to study in the UK
so that I can not only absorb the culture there but also meet with people all around the world.
Chevening scholarship will provide me with the opportunity to connect with leading designers of
the world and also help me become a leading designer in my community.

(490 Words)

4. Career plan

Chevening is looking for individuals who have a clear post-study career plan. Please outline
your immediate plans upon returning home and your longer term career goals. You may wish to
consider how these relate to what the UK government is doing in your country.
Why is graphic designing so underdeveloped in contrast with the amount of people taking
interest in it within Pakistan? Pakistan with 9% of freelancers in the world, out of which around
40% consists of graphic designers, the freelance community contributes only 1 billion US dollars
to its economy. Meanwhile, the neighbouring country, India, is contributing 400 billion US dollars
with 24% of the world's freelancers. In 2020, a company called Qpro arranged a competition
among designers within Pakistan and out of 700+ participants, none could achieve a 5-star
rating from the judges, the winner was given 4.5 stars, which is very disappointing. I too have
arranged multiple design competitions on a university level. My expectations of seeing a tough
competition were plundered. Instead, the trend is in reverse and I have seen judges struggle to
select a top-performing design out of all the bad entries.

It's not about the lack of talent or opportunity but the mindset. How can we tackle the problem of
poverty when we are not even serious about learning the skills necessary to end it? Everyone
needs a quick fix to their problems and they skip the necessary steps of fundamental learning. A
staggering number of small-sized institutions are teaching design but they are only teaching the
use of tools such as Photoshop and CoralDraw, but not the necessary knowledge of design
theory to use the same tools to the best of their capabilities.

My immediate goal upon returning home is to develop a network with existing design
communities, such as ‘Design Baithak’ from Lahore, and develop an online platform that
focuses on the theory of design. I will make it easy and engaging for people to learn from so that
an interest in design research and seriousness about this skill can be developed not only within
the existing design communities but also within the shortcuts-seeking community of designers. I
aim to reach 5000+ designers through my online platform within the first year of its launch,
providing them with 50+ hours of free, high-quality design theory content. My goal is to increase
the average design skill level of Pakistani designers by 30-50% within two years after returning
home.

My mid-term goal is to tackle the current mindset of the designers of Pakistan, that they are
always correct, and that they need to follow trends and money instead of their interests. For this,
I will be developing an influential podcast for solving this particular problem and not only to
inspire but educate the masses. I plan on reaching 20% of the design community in Pakistan
within the first year of launch and funnel them to my online platform of design teaching and
collaboration.

My long-term goal is to bring a positive movement that results in the world saying, “If you want a
graphic designer, hire a Pakistani!” For this, two things are required. One, building a proper
design firm that is of an international level and would become a goal for the designers in
Pakistan, hence prompting them to self-improve and work towards becoming the best to be a
part of such a firm. Two, academia-linkage with design teaching institutes and making sure that
the students of these institutes learn how to best use the tools with proper theoretical
knowledge. I will use my studies to develop a curriculum for design education in my region,
focusing on innovative teaching methods and hands-on learning experiences. By mentoring
aspiring designers and sharing my knowledge, I hope to inspire a new generation of creative
thinkers who will shape the future of design. Achieving this will unlock the world to the Pakistani
design community and will greatly affect the contribution to the economy in a positive manner.

The Department for International Development (DFID) leads the UK’s global efforts to end
extreme poverty, this includes their efforts in Pakistan. My goal clearly works in the same
direction, targeting the interest of online earning and freelancing within the Pakistani people.
This would positively impact the financial contribution of freelancers and remote workers in the
economy of Pakistan. Chevening would help me in taking a step towards my goals and doing a
master's in the diverse and multiracial environment in the UK will help me broaden my horizons
so that I can take on the mentioned problems to the best of my capabilities and also spread the
knowledge and importance of design within my region.

(731 Words)