Rajvi Bhogaita, professionally known as Shaw 22, is a breakout London-based graphic designer, influencer and illustrator whose work has been exhibited on Oxford Street and sold at Brick Lane market. She has worked with several prominent brands, including big names such as Schuh, Adidas and Samsung. Rajvi has also conceptualised elegant minimalistic furniture, created radiant large-scale murals and recently had her first solo show in December 2024. As a digital artist, her potent prolific prints often showcase a diverse range of daring women rendered in colourful geometric form. This channels the intriguing aesthetic of soulful urban chic. Her art carries an elemental relatable glamour where one piece may show an assassin-like character with long, lush flowing black hair in a curve-hugging moody maxi dress while another could depict a serene, composed face in nature, peering out through ‘chalky’ white lilies. One particularly striking artwork illustrates a nonchalant South-Asian woman in a rich red veil as if to say essential confidence emerges from the fulfilling connection to culture. What the pieces have in common is the idea of everyday womanhood as an intimate yet socially revitalising force.
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Rajvi states fun early 2000’s cartoons such as Cartoon Network’s Powerpuff Girls as part of spurring her creativity growing up, as well as shows such as “Kim Possible and Totally Spies: I was drawing women from animations with edge and power. Since I could hold a pencil, I have always gravitated towards drawing women. I began by drawing my favourite Disney Princesses and making zines of their stories. I have held on to that as I have grown as an illustrator and try to convey a sense of quiet confidence and style.” Rajvi’s designs seem to merge self-love, sensuality and cultural richness with the beauty of surrounding life. Nature and inner peace are recurring themes where mindfulness is inherent to Rajvi’s work: there is a gentle intuitiveness that underlies her signature sheer strength. In terms of what compels the illustrator towards graphic art, she commented: “It is the way simple, ordinary elements such as shapes, colours, type and space become something beautiful when combined. I love finding inspiration in the mundane and how this can spark inspiration to be transformed into design e.g. I always find nice colour combinations to use out in the wild: the colour and texture of two people’s outfits as they stand next to each other or the details and contrast within flowers.”
Here, when asked what philosophy may summarise Rajvi's illustration, she elaborated: “It would be to slow down, observe more and reconnect with play – so much of the joy we experienced when we were kids was from being in the moment and feeling free enough to use our imaginations and explore our environment. I hope that people feel warm, comforted and inspired when interacting with my art.” Indeed, this was the ambience experienced at one of her latest events, Playing Outside, which took place at the vibrant hub of Corner Corner in Canada Water and raised money for the homeless. As well as art, the type of products being showcased included organic skincare and Elfin pop-up portraits while a live band played feel-good pop and R&B in the background. Further to this, on Instagram, Rajvi talks about her personal experience with challenging mental and physical health, including being diagnosed with cancer, and it seems the evolution of her grounded, healing spirit has certainly been shaped by this. Workwise, Rajvi has a strong individual ethic, having been scouted by the head of design at Iris, a top creative agency, before she had even graduated: “This started my post-grad career as a designer in advertising and I continued to freelance on the side, posting on socials, which led to brands commissioning me for their projects. I now work as a designer at Hey Human full-time and continue to work on my passion projects on the side.” Rajvi herself embodies self-possession, gratitude and promotes complete consolidation of the self. In addition to positivity, she sensitively advised:
“I think it’s important to sit in moments where things also feel hard and uncomfortable to understand those feelings and why you feel the way you do. Often when creating things, you hit blocks and go through so much trial and error which no one sees. You have to make a lot of ugly work before you get to the good stuff: having the resilience and slight delusion to push through: that is what leads to success.” The fluid relationship between personal charisma and confronting the many challenges of the modern world then culminates in Rajvi’s wholesome animated brand today. Shaw’s bold yet smooth commanding female figures reveal a formidable superpower: that of unbound yet centring femininity.
What are your goals for the future?
I hope to host art, design and craft workshops all over the UK and the world. I would love to create spaces for community to come together and inspire people to get in touch with their creativity. I’d also love to do another solo exhibition at some point when I have a new collection of work.
What tips do you have for exploring the world of digital art – if you were relatively new to it?
This is probably the easiest time to get into it because there’s so many free resources online. Affinity, a digital design software I started with when I was 18, has just made their software free forever. This means that the barrier to entry is so much lower and there’s so many amazing creators making tutorials out there on YouTube, Patreon and their socials. I’d also suggest doing studies of art and things you love to discover your style. This evolves with you over your life but observing the things you’re drawn to and figuring out why this is probably a good first step to making unique work that is a personal reflection of you.
You studied industrial design and have had your creative vision for furniture manifested: do you think you will move more towards interior decoration over time?
Honestly, I’m open to explore art and design across a lot of mediums – I designed my mum’s salon renovation earlier this year. I am enjoying working more with physical media as of late and would love to design more products that help facilitate mindfulness and connecting with your inner child like journals and craft kits.
Tell us a bit more about your personal journey: how did you arrive at this point?
I’ve been drawing my whole life but started freelancing when I was 18 in the first year of university, doing £5 drawings of my friends as if they were making cameos in their favourite cartoons that they watched whilst growing up such as The Simpsons, Fairly Odd Parents, Proud Family and The Powerpuff Girls: people eventually started coming to me with bigger briefs like designing logos, t-shirts and branding for their businesses. I had no idea what I was doing but just said yes to the opportunities and figured it out later!
I did an internship during my third year of university as an in-house graphic designer for a prop-tech start up and was responsible for all the creative, which threw me in at the deep end, but helped me grow so much.
You have the motto ‘create more than you consume’ which is great: can you please elaborate?
We live in a world where the average screen time is between 6 and 7 hours a day. We’re spending so much energy consuming the lives of others, it’s easy to forget to live your own, which is why we often feel so drained. It’s important to reclaim that time, create for yourself and emit the type of frequency you want to feel in the world.
IG: @Shaw.22