THE STUDIO
Samaj Studio is a full-service creative studio for women's health and wellbeing. We design products, services, and experiences that treat women as full human beings: complex, specific, and deserving of beauty as much as function.
Our work spans product and service design, research, and creative strategy. It's always built in collaboration with the communities it's meant to serve, never from a distance. We have worked with small grassroots organizations in rural communities and with some of the world's largest global health institutions, and we bring the same conviction to both.
We believe aesthetics are dignity. That how something looks and feels is not separate from whether it works, and that the women and girls we design for deserve the same level of care, craft, and attention that goes into anything made for someone who matters - no matter the budget, no matter the context.
Image: La Comtesse at the Table with Hand to Face. Pierre-Louis Pierson, 1860s.
Every project begins and ends with care. We work with a collective of women designers, researchers, and specialists around the world, assembling the right collaborators for each project rather than offering a fixed menu of services. This means our clients get exactly the expertise their work demands - no more, no less.
Our process is rooted in trauma-informed and equity-centered design principles. because for the communities and sensitive subject matters we work with, how we design is as important as what we design.
Image: Five Beauties. Teisai Hokuba, 1840.
THE APPROACH
THE FOUNDER
Samaj Studio was founded by Priyanka Pathak, an award-winning creative director, product designer, engineer, artist, and global health specialist. Over 15 years and across 17 countries, she has co-designed products and programs with women and girls - including for reproductive care, sexual health, and maternal health - alongside organizations including UNICEF, the World Bank, WHO, and USAID, as well as small community organizations and private sector firms worldwide. She has taught courses on design, technology, and social impact, serving as faculty at Parsons School of Design, Arizona State University, the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, and TechChange.
Her work is shaped by a belief that the most important thing a designer can do is pay full attention: to the person in front of them, to what cannot always be seen, and to the understanding that how something feels is inseparable from whether it works.
Image: On The Stage. Edgar Degas, 1876-77.
