Artist Isha Dipika Walia on Authentic Practice
A conversation with the designer and photographer ahead of the newsletter's first panel
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A week from today, I’ll be hosting the long-awaited panel discussion with Craig Braun, Isha Dipika Walia, and Camilo Medina on May 20th, 2026, at Public Records in Brooklyn, NY. Over the past month, I’ve been reading The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker and Blank Space by W. David Marx in preparation. Both titles have made me think about early experiences with creativity, the processes we practice, and the purpose of making art in the first place. We’ll be talking about these ideas and more on Wednesday. Doors are at 7 pm, and the panel begins at 7:30. I’d suggest getting there promptly to peruse a table of vinyl from our sponsor, A to Z Media, grab a cocktail of your choice, and get a good seat!
If you haven’t gotten a ticket, you can join the waitlist here. If you can’t make it to the event, I’d suggest upgrading to a paid plan to access recorded footage of the panel. Spoiler alert: this isn’t the first panel of the year…
Ahead of the night, I wanted to whet your appetite with insights from the brilliant Isha Dipika Walia. An artist across various mediums, Isha is a member of photography duo Cairo Dipika, and the co-founder of Studio Pending, a creative collective that has produced visuals for Lady Gaga, Travis Scott & Beyoncé, among others. Many moons ago, we worked together on a website for the musician Kindness’ album Something Like a War, for which Isha also did the campaign creative.
Most recently, her thoughtful vision has curated the visuals for Ravyn Lenae’s latest singles, “Reputation/ Bobby,” and the design for James K’s 2025 album Friend. Below, she guides us through how self-starting and authenticity are at the crux of her practice.
What is your first memory of design?
When I first immigrated to the US with my mother, we met my father in NYC, where he worked as a courier. In those early days, I would often ride along with him as he fulfilled deliveries, driving a van filled with stacks of magazines to bodegas across the city, including spots like Mulberry Iconic Magazines and Casa Magazines.
One of my earliest potent memories is of sitting on a small plastic dollar-store stool in the back of the cargo van, surrounded by stacks and stacks of magazines from all over, across every kind of subject. There were a lot more magazines back then, too. Looking back, I think that’s where I first became aware of how aesthetics are organized by design and how each publication carried its own world, its own taste, its own audience. Of course, I was too young to understand it, but the environment definitely planted the seed for my obsession with print media.
Tell us about your creative journey leading up to Studio Pending.
I was always drawing and writing stories, and by 13 I had taught myself video editing and animation using now-defunct software... I’m especially grateful to the two art teachers who noticed me. I ended up doing this thing called the Olympics of the Visual Arts here in New York, which was a yearly journey upstate for one day in which we had to present our artwork, which we had worked on all year, with a binder of research and meaning behind it. I did this every year from 7th to 12th grade. I spent a lot of time in the art room and was even asked to run the AP photography class at my high school during my senior year.
I was undocumented for a long time, which meant I couldn’t get working papers, so I made myself a job. I began running my own event photography business and did that well into college. Somehow, even back then, I was always working in a gig-based way and was always a hustler (haha). I would stay up all night playing video games, watching movies, obsessing over my music library, experimenting with software, and editing… I needed the undisturbed hours to fully go down my rabbit hole.
Naturally, design became a sensible career to pursue as I entered adulthood. I was completely mesmerized and badly needed structure. That was when I met Bryan Rivera. We were both studying at FIT, and someone introduced us to each other as the best graphic designers in our program.
In those first weeks of our friendship, I told him how I wished I had more friends like him, like-minded in our taste and drive. He instantly brought up his online friend, Travis Brothers, who he said was like a guy version of me, and made a group chat… The rest is history.
When you begin designing an album, what is the first step of your creative process? Your headspace?
I tend to think about the musician first, even if they ask me not to. I liken my job to a sort of visual psychoanalysis, so it always starts with an intake of questions for them. There is an Octavia Butler quote that comes to mind… “Emotional Drive Strive Always In All Ways At All Times Always For Intensity.”
I am very extra. I like to push myself as much as I can to introduce refreshing perspectives. In between mine, the musician's, and the audience’s, how is the music received, and where do our tastes meet? This is crucial to make things that feel authentic.
I never take anyone’s brief as is and certainly don’t just impose my own, or any, world on theirs. This is true for all kinds of projects for me, but especially so with albums, because they require worldbuilding. The first step is this amorphous emotional drive that then guides what I should research.
One of my favorite projects of yours is Vegyn’s The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions. The origami folds and construction are so innovative. Where did the structural inspiration stem from?
For the life of me, I cannot remember where I dug up this record sleeve, but I’ve had it for well over a decade now… It’s a Tina Turner record I found that opens up in a similar way to what I built for Vegyn’s record. I came across it at a time when I would go to record shops very frequently to specifically dig, not for music, but packaging and design reference, because I was so enamored by the design and treatments of older records. They had more time and care when it was the primary medium.
So I had this approach in the back of my head for many years, waiting for the right album to come along for which the concept might make sense. I wanted to make sure I was pushing the concept into new territory, and it not just be an aesthetic play. I managed to make it fit two discs and have 3 entirely different album covers on one sleeve.
You recently began a photo collaboration called Cairo Dipika. How does this partnership differ from or is similar to Studio Pending?
Coming together to form a new practice outside of our on-going careers was a very deliberate choice by Cairo (Jess) and I. Even though photography has always been a part of my creative journey and adjacent to both of our careers as art directors, becoming a photography duo has been a huge leap.
With Studio Pending, we had already established ourselves well within our roles, so the partnership is an extension of the skill set we already had over years of shared experience. It was inevitable and has been enduring. Cairo Dipika is an exciting experiment because it is a newer relationship. We are learning and understanding each other as artists while establishing the practice itself. It’s precious and deep, even when the work is casual, because it’s my soul sister and me. This creates its own kind of unique perspective, which is ultimately what I strive for all the time: authenticity at a time when nothing feels original anymore. I think it comes from how we explore our relatedness and how we play with process and learning. Both Cairo Dipika and Studio Pending are similar in that way. There is a deep trust and non-hierarchical form of collaboration, which is rare and unconventional for the commercial world we have to operate in.
What is an album cover that has recently made an impression on you?
Most recently, my friend Vicki suggested I listen to Dry Cleaning’s new album, Secret Love, and I thought the cover art was great. I love how deliberate it is.
See you next week at the panel! Hear more of what Isha has to say, along with Craig and Camilo, by becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll receive recorded footage of the panel in June and be able to listen and watch wherever and whenever your heart desires. Reminder: this isn’t the first panel of the year!
The Art of Cover Art is a free educational and inspirational resource. If you have $5/ month to spare, it would be super helpful in furthering my research. Or, if you think a friend might enjoy this newsletter, the best way to pay it forward is by sharing!