Sharmila Karamchandani, a graphic designer, art educator, and an entrepreneur coach has a passion for design and working in arts education and community non-profits. Sharmila acquired her MFA in Graphic Design from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and has been teaching graphic design for more than a decade in several local colleges and universities. She also has a BFA in advertising. Sharmila has continued her ongoing work as a freelancer for more than two decades. She founded Khush Designs in November of 2014.
In addition to being the creative head at Khush Designs, Sharmila teaches Graphic Design at The Corcoran College of Art and Design at The George Washington University. She is also a Lead Entrepreneur Coach at Empowered Women International (EWI), An Expressive Arts instructor with a Non-Profit called HEARD, She teaches Calligraphy at Smithsonian Studio Arts and sells her handmade jewelry, paintings and unique handmade gifts at local events and fairs. Sharmila was honored with the Creativity and Commitment award in 2008 for her extraordinary service at Empowered Women International. She was also awarded "Teacher of the year" in 2008 By VCCA. In 2020 and 2021 she won 2 Artist grants form Arts Fairfax and Alexandria Commission for the Arts and with the grant money she conducted expressive art workshops with vulnerable and underserved population in Alexandria, Virginia.
Sharmila always wanted to be an educator. She loves to empower women and children and often hosts art workshops in the community. Sharmila is a multi-disciplinary artist and works in several mediums such as painting, jewelry design, photography, calligraphy, henna painting, mixed media collages, fiber arts and more. She dreams of opening her own art school one day and is actively working towards it.
"Sharmila is a well-connected professional that always takes the time to support anyone in her network. She has a very impressive background and profile and I recommend Sharmila as an expert to connect with and consider for anything appropriate."
"I endorse Sharmila as the most hard working, loving, creative person I have ever met in my life time. She has great passion for graphic design and teaching. She got some good recognition awards as a best educator of the year etc. I know her for past 15, 16 years and always find her a big source of help for me for all time. The thing I admire most about her is that she is always looking positively towards people's behavior."
"Sharmila Karamchandani is a talented and creative graphic designer. She has designed flyers, brochures, rack cards and catalogs for two separate organizations I work with – Living Legends of Alexandria and Hollin Hall Weddings and Events. She provides draft versions based on our initial objectives and then fine-tunes her designs based on our feedback. She is dedicated to fulfilling our needs in getting our message across, meeting our deadlines and working within our budget. I recommend her every chance I get!"
"As a fellow artist, I am in awe of Sharmila's unique command of typography, layout and color utility. Her work demonstrates excellence, creativity, strong work ethic and insatiable artistic exploration. She consistently produces professional quality work that earned her respect from students, while serving as a benchmark among her peers. A natural leader. Sharmila is very supportive of students through technical help, critical advice and her humble personality adapts instantly to teamwork. No wonder she was elected Faculty of the Year!"