about

A studio with a spine

we hate vanilla is a product and brand design studio in Bangalore, India, working with startups and tech companies across the US, Europe and Australia. We build products people actually remember.

What the studio is

A small senior team doing product design, brand identity and websites for startups and tech companies, on fixed scope and fixed price. The studio started in 2026 and is based in Bengaluru; clients are mostly in the US, Europe and Australia, with in-person work for teams in Bangalore.

What we believe: usability is where design starts, not where it wins. The products people remember have a point of view — a way of moving, speaking and looking that couldn't be swapped with the nearest competitor. Useful is the bare minimum.

Creative advisor: Atul Khola

Atul has spent 12 years in product design, building products and design teams from scratch, and is still hands-on with craft and code. He sets the studio's creative bar and reviews the work.

• Zero — Head of Design & Experience, 2025 to present. Set up Design & Experience, built a 12-person multidisciplinary team and led the design and launch of an AI-native learning and talent platform; the beta drew a global waitlist of 10,000+ people.
• CRED — Lead Product Designer, January 2021 to May 2025, Bangalore. Worked across Home, central experiences and Shop, led the design pod for the Cards management revamp, and led NEOPOP, CRED's design system, which was later open-sourced.
• cult.fit — Senior Product Designer, 2019 to 2021. Owned the gym experience in the fitness app: retention up 30%, monthly bookings up 19%.
• Media.net — Product Designer, 2018 to 2019. Finance and ad-monetisation products, including work for Forbes; top-of-funnel performance up 47%.
• Toppr — Product Designer, 2016 to 2018. The initial designer on learning products used by more than 1.2 million students.
• Toovia — Product Designer, 2015 to 2016. Digital, visual and spatial work for luxury lifestyle brands.

He is an alumnus of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT).

To be plain about it: this is work Atul led at those companies, before and alongside the studio; none of them are studio clients. The work, case by case.

Awards

Atul led the team that made the Why Zero site (zero.university), and that team won the awards below. He brings the same standard to we hate vanilla as creative advisor. The site was made at Zero, not at the studio.

• Awwwards — Site of the Day, Developer Award, Business & Services Honors
• The FWA — of the Month (July 2026) and of the Day
• CSS Design Awards — Website of the Day
• Orpetron — Site of the Month (July 2026)

More on what made it work: award-winning websites.

Recognition

• Favikon: ranked #3 among LinkedIn design creators in India (2026).
• 20 podcast appearances on product design, AI and design careers.
• Portfolio features: Wall of Portfolios "Portfolio of the Month" (February 2025 edition) and a dev.to round-up of designer portfolios, among others listed on his site.

atulkhola.com · LinkedIn · Dribbble · Behance · X

How we work

• The people on the first call do the work.
• Fixed scope, fixed price, weekly cycles: real work in week one.
• Daily async updates and one live review a week in your time zone — Europe, the US East Coast morning, or Australian afternoons.
• You own everything: Figma source, fonts, code, IP on final payment.

Where

Bengaluru, India. Working with startups and tech companies in the US, Europe and Australia, and in person with teams in Bangalore.