Blood sweat and tears: Asan Ahmed on founding BlueGreen at 19 and the value of making mistakes

Asan Ahmed’s road to founding his own studio wasn’t exactly the breeziest. Growing up in Iraq, Ahmed stumbled into the world of design when, at 11, he first got his hands on a laptop, and went down an Adobe Illustrator and YouTube tutorials rabbit hole. He took to it quite naturally, and seven years later, at 18, he started his studio, BlueGreen. It’s only been a year since then, but Ahmed has already put together a handful of projects that reflect his taste and showcase a skilful use of type that belies his years. In this conversation, he takes us through his creative journey, details how his most important job at the studio is finding collaborators whose skillsets “heavily outweigh” his, and points out the value of making mistakes early on and learning from them. RB: Hi Asan, how has this year been treating you? AA: Hi Ritupriya! Thanks for asking. Our year’s bright as ever! That doesn’t mean we are anxiety-free and have no challenges to face, but the opposite. We try to always embrace reality as it is!