Did you know that a Kochi-based animation director and 3D artist has worked with musicians/artists like J Cole, Diddy, Drake, Ye (Kanye West), Li’l Nas X, and Post Malone?
Meet Akshay Anand aka D3signeric, who has also worked with brands including HBO x Emmy Awards, among others, apart from designing Coachella visuals for record producer Metro Boomin and directing a 3D billboard for Snipes USA, which was displayed in Times Square, New York. That is not all, he has also worked with the creative teams behind multiple NBA basketball teams, Including the LA Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks.
And these are just some of this largely self-taught artist’s works.
“P Diddy’s (Sean Combs) former creative director chanced upon my work on Instagram; I had posted some works inspired by the music I listen to. He loved it an dasked me if I could do something for the 10th anniversary of Diddy’s album ‘Last Train to Paris,’” says Akshay, who confesses to be partial towards hip-hop as a genre. That catapulted him to a league of creators and artists in Hollywood, which many can only dream of. He confesses that he is one of the lucky few whose day job/passion is a combination of his twin passions – art and music.
Akshay Anand
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
As a child, Akshay says, he was interested in drawing, especially cartoon characters and animation. It not only made him curious about how animation worked but alsowhetted his appetite to explore the medium more. He even picked Commercial Arts as a subject while in Class XI at Global Public School, Kochi, which helped lay an artistic foundation. The interest grew along with him, leading him to the decision topursue animation as a career. A fan of 2D animation, he realised that there was a whole new world of 3D animation which got him hooked.
Following a Bachelor’s degree in Animation and Digital Direction, he began hi sexperiments with the medium. “While the industry knowledge I gained in college laid the foundation for my career, it was what I learnt myself from YouTube tutorials or various kinds of software helped widen the scope of my knowledge – technically and creatively.”
He began posting, what he calls, his ‘passion projects’ on his Instagram handle (@d3signeric), catching the attention of people in the industry and Sean Combs’ creative director. “He liked my style of working and my vision, we spoke about my work and passion. It was my first time interacting with someone important from that industry.” Three months later he landed the project.
Around the same time he was also working with KDC Visions, and through him, the late rapper/songwriter Juice WRLD and XXXTentacion, whose posthumous works were getting ready for release. This was before the Sean Combs promo was released. At the time Akshay was into concept art and digital painting, where he would paint the skies and environments of animation videos. He worked with KDC Visions on four videos, which spanned a year.
Akshay Anand’s work at Times Square, New York City
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
It was, however, the ‘Last Train to Paris’ promo video that got him the opportunity to work with the others. Although the project was ready in 10 days, other legal hassles led to the video being released the following year, in 2021.
“These two projects, simultaneously, launched my international career!”
Although he had joined a five-year course, the college shut down, he ended up finishing it in three years at another college. “But because of that I was able to figure out what I actually wanted to do. If not, I would have gone down the same conventional route – a studio job doing film VFX, instead of finding my own path.”
To the question about how he manages to get work and make contacts, Akshay says, “I worked very hard on the Sean Combs project and every subsequent opportunity that came my way. It was all word of mouth publicity that started the entire chain of events… the teams — creative directors, directors and producers — are in contact with each other. They, obviously, talk about work like ‘there is a guy in India who does this work…’ Word gets around.”
So why was the music industry his focus, starting out ?
He explains that work for him, “Music is everything to me, it keeps me going and drives me to create. That is why I chose this industry. The work has to mean something to me beyond a good paycheck.”
Akshay is also working in the film industry, mainly title sequences and animated shots. Having worked in the music industry, he felt the urge to explore the other side — movies. One such, People of the West, a docu-series, premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, recently.
Over time he has turned animation director and post-producer, where he does not have to do everything on his own and instead, finds talent, local and global, and can curate a team that would be best equipped to deliver the work. “I am trying a lot of new, different things. I want to try my luck in the Malayalam film industry also, because so much is happening here now — the scale and ambition has also grown massively .Malayalam films are increasingly finding a place on the international festival circuit, it is an industry earning global recognition.”
After six years of this work, he says he loves this work because, “I can bring a vision to life and the creativity involved in the whole process is what I enjoy the most. It’s almost like having a superpower. The ability to turn a thought or an idea into something visual. I basically have the power to bring anything I imagine to life, which is something I absolutely love about what I do.”
Published – August 21, 2026 12:59 pm IST
