Meet Sarita Rajpathak | Graphic Designer + Founder of Rajasaurusrex

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarita Rajpathak and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarita, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
To be honest, I was tired of being broke all of the time and not feeling accomplished as an artist. I wasn’t doing anything but applying my talents to someone else’s vision. Wrist work. Clicking. Nothing creative, just following orders. So after they traded me in for a cheaper designer while retaining all my hard work for the new hire to jump right into, I decided my talent would be best channeled into my own brand, Rajasaurusrex.

When I started, I knew I had to be more than I was. Shy and quiet don’t really lend themselves to being a bold brand founder. So I was flipping through my sketchbook looking for anything I could use as a logo, and I came across this little shark, Rosco, that I had drawn in college. Perfect! I thought, you’re a bull shark.. you’re fearless, curious. You’re not afraid to push the envelope a little bit and test your own limits. So I took him by the fin and said, guide me through this brand. Teach me to be a bull shark. And Rajasaurusrex was born.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still broke. But now I know I’m working towards my own vision, and that makes me ten times richer than I’d ever be working for anyone else.

Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
My art revolves around themes of nature and exploration, pushing oneself past self-created limits to create the unimaginable. As a creative, this means constantly viewing the world around me in different ways; converting my experiences into feelings, and then visually coding that feeling into an aesthetic. As an illustrator turned graphic designer, with a love for ceramics and woodworking, the tools I have at my disposal to express myself as an artist are limited only to my imagination. On good days, I feel unstoppable.

Aside from my amazing parents, schooling opportunities, and dedicated instructors, a positive attitude is the single most effective tool I have found to help carry me through the tough times. It costs nothing monetary to cultivate this mindset, and it translates into less red tape and more questioning of the world around you. It means not taking ‘no’ for an answer, in all the best ways possible. As cheesy as it may sound, staying positive really helps to keep things in perspective. Not getting bogged down with details can be difficult for someone who is OCD like myself, so reminding myself of past accomplishments while being mindful that I am doing my very best, really goes a long way towards keeping my head up and my feet going.

No, it definitely was not easy. Hard work is just that. Hard. But easy work is sometimes more difficult in the long run. Staying positive has been the single most effective tactic for me when it comes to powering through tough times. Being mindful of the bigger picture and remaining grateful for the little things are also key to not taking life for granted.

I’ve learned that the only person who can enact change in your life is yourself. Sometimes we are the biggest gatekeepers to our own success, and it’s very easy to get disillusioned from disappointment or failure. But I also learned that people are more willing to help than I thought, and resources are out there for those who are willing to ask for them.

I want the world to know that their dreams are in fact possible. Fear is a huge part of why so many aspiring entrepreneurs never push through the early stages. It took me the better part of eight years to finally overcome my initial mental roadblocks and simply start creating. But, this brand has become more than just an outlet for me to make art. It’s ultimately a reflection of my story, and therefore now a mirror for anyone who is also fearful of pursuing something they might have a vision for, just like I was! If I can come this far after this long, then anyone can.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well, my best friend is originally from here so she already knows all the best spots. But for anyone else, I’d start by taking them to the beach. Any beach would do really, though Boynton’s beaches by far outweigh the rest. Three local spots in particular have free parking and are always clean. Not the touristy one that’s always packed with out-of-towners, but the ones they don’t know about. Shhh!

Later we’d grab some lunch downtown in Lake Worth, and spend some time at the Flamingo Clay Studio on J street. If you want to learn pottery, this is the place to do it. One evening we might take in a movie at Lake Worth’s drive-in theater. With two screens in a massive parking lot, you can cozy up in the car or drop the tailgate and raise the speakers. Just please remember to turn off your headlights.

Most of the time we’d probably just hang out at my house or with my friends to be perfectly honest. There’s really not a whole lot you need to spend money on when you have good company, so it doesn’t matter what we do as long as we’re together. Make some art, play some games, whatever comes up. But in the event we want to spend a night out on the town, my first thought would be Clematis Street in downtown West Palm Beach. Dinner? Bar hopping? Maybe both followed by a stroll down to the water? Parking may be a pain but once you find a spot, you’re golden! And there’s always the train if you don’t mind being late sometimes.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

My dad has taught me everything I know and continues to inspire my creative vision. Watching him struggle to start his own business early on paved the way for me to follow in his footsteps and create my own. I learned that I have way more to offer than most companies would be willing to pay me for, and that I do not have to settle for less if I don’t want to.

Studying visual art in high school at Dreyfoos opened my world to a whole new way of envisioning my future. This lead me to Ringling College, where my growth and ideas as an artist exploded into the early concept stages that now make up the underlying foundations of my skate and apparel brand. Exploration, risk-taking, fear… everything I learned lead directly to my vision of pushing or testing personal limits to be better than who we were yesterday.

The 1909 Accelerator Program was probably the turning point for when my concept vision began to solidify into a concrete business plan that would actually be viable. I learned things about starting a business that they don’t teach you at art school. This program ended up becoming the defining moment between structuring my brand idea and outlining its operation logistics, and I couldn’t be more grateful to have been involved in this amazing opportunity.

Website: https://www.rajasaurusrex.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rajasaurusrex/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajasaurusrex/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rajasaurusrex/

Other: https://rajasaurusrex.carbonmade.com/