Humans of Warwick - Zeeshan Yousuf
Zeeshan Yousuf
Undergraduate, Design and Global Sustainable Development
“Changing course did not close a door for me, it opened several at once.”
“I started my Warwick journey in the School of Engineering. At school, I took mainly STEM subjects and was pretty good at them, so Engineering felt like the natural choice in my career progression.
Deep down though, I had always been drawn to designing things, having also studied art. I sketched and daydreamed about beautiful products. At the time, there wasn’t a formal ‘design’ course available at Warwick, so I figured Engineering might be a close fit to what I wanted to do. A few months in however, I realised it wasn’t quite perfect. Projects like designing a miniature spring-powered car or a boat, there wasn’t much room to explore the wider context or to shape the brief ourselves. I started to understand that I wanted a pathway that allowed me to explore and express my creativity with thinking and social impact, not just one or the other.
Later that summer, I heard about a new design course in the works, it sounded almost like a dream degree, and I considered pivoting. My parents were understandably hesitant because of the efforts I had put into the Engineering route. After attending an open day with my dad, he saw how the course aligned with my aspirations and encouraged me to make the switch. Following a gap year I would be joining the first cohort. My gap year helped me bridge the two worlds, I spent it as a junior designer working on materials, renderings and visuals. I even travelled to China to learn about manufacturing, which was an eye-opening and culturally enriching experience.
When the Design and Global Sustainable Development course started, I was warned about something called “The Great Unlearning”. At first, I didn’t get it, but over time I realised it meant breaking some rigid habits, learn to question assumptions, take initiative, and embrace originality and creativity. It pushed me outside my comfort zone, and I was finally doing things that I really wanted to do.
Compared to over 300 students in Engineering, my new cohort was tiny. Just eight people from different backgrounds like Computer Science, Architecture and Social Design. We spend a lot of time in the studio, sharing ideas and learning from our incredibly diverse perspectives through critique, comparison and co-creation. Our lecturers know us individually and we are supported at every step as we grow into the designers we want to become.
Outside of university, I’m still all about creativity. I love photography and capturing the light and still life around campus. I create 3D visuals in Blender, and when I can, I still paint. Design has transformed from being something I ‘learn’ or ‘do’ in my studies and has become my way of life.
When I first switched, I imagined my future in automotive or product design, but after doing my ‘Visual Practice’ project, I felt almost overwhelmed by potential career possibilities. After some valuable time with my tutor, I found myself excited by the niche trajectory of Yacht Design, which I believe has a lot of unrealised potential for sustainability.
The biggest change for me is how design has shifted my mindset as a learner. The design side of my degree has opened my mind to the beauty and inspiration to be found in nature, in imperfection and in ‘human’ expression. And the sustainability side has shown what our true responsibility is as future creators. I feel so lucky to have had such a transformative experience.”