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 George Mason University and is a Lead Entrepreneur Coach at Empowered Women International (EWI). In the fall of 2006, she attended the Entrepreneur Training for Success (ETS), a business coaching program for start-ups at EWI, which helped her to market herself as an artist. Since then she has worked at EWI in various capacities including a volunteer, mentor, graphic designer, and trainer. Sharmila was honored with the Creativity and Commitment award in 2008 for her extraordinary service to EWI. She largely credits the organization for her successful career in arts in the US.
Sharmila always wanted to be an educator. In 2008, she was awarded ‘Teacher of the Year’ from Westwood College and Virginia Commission of the Arts (VCA). She loves to empower women and children and often hosts art workshops in the community. She works in mediums such as painting, jewelry design, photography, calligraphy, henna painting, mixed media collages, and fiber arts.
"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!"