Ramisha Sattar On Building A DIY Popstar

Ramisha Sattar has been crafty for as long as she can remember.

She may now be known for her creative work behind artist Chappell Roan and astrologist Chani Nicolas, but I first came across her collages years prior, when we were both wide-eyed students making things for the online magazine Rookie.

“I'm in my craft room right now staring at all the pieces of every craft I've picked up,” she tells me through a screen one morning in early October. This video call marks the first time we’ve ever spoken to each other off of Instagram, which she tells me is how many of her other creative pursuits have started out.

She recalls how she started knitting in elementary school and had a phase for every other crafty hobby – from scrapbooking to printmaking – as a girl coming of age in Texas. But it was when she learned Photoshop via a Rookie DIY tutorial and eventually began illustrating for them that things really clicked. Ramisha’s work often involves the mixing of analog mediums like risographs and sunprinting with digital programs to get her desired outcome.

Now that she’s based between LA and Dallas, she relishes the time she gets to spend in her craft room, which she describes as her own “little Pinterest board” and which houses all of her scrapbooks and mood boards.

You’ll often find Ramisha in the “Special thanks” section of music videos and album liner notes. She’s a merch designer (peep the iconic “Red Wine Supernova” rabbit bandana and the cyanotype-print hoodies), stage visual animator, and even stylist. But beyond that, she’s Chappell’s best friend. The two share an Instagram account (@lovekishakisha) where they routinely go live to talk about random topics, with the most recent being their hope for a Grammy nomination for best album package design.

Below, we discuss Ramisha’s artistic process, Rookie’s imprint on creative direction in pop, and the joy of cultivating creative communities off Instagram.

Gaby Gloria: Hi Misha! It’s been a while – I’m not even sure when we started following each other! I remember back when, with Rookie, you would do the collage kits, right?

Ramisha Sattar: Yeah, I really love collage – it’s a big part of what I do. It's fun because I started doing collage art when I was doing the collage kits at Rookie. I had done it in my bedroom for fun, but that was my first time being like, oh my god, there's so much we can do here. And I feel like collage kits are coming back.

GG: Honestly, now, with the pop stars who are big, apart from Chappell, [there’s] Olivia Rodrigo, etc. – their graphics are a lot of cut-and-paste type of things. It’s like, “Wow, Rookies are everywhere!” It's exciting to see how that influence has played out in the creative world.

RS: I love that. It's so true! It's like we were all kids back then, and now all of us are working in design. The little styles we picked up at Rookie together are infiltrating pop culture.

GG: That's why I was also really interested in your work – it's always had that DIY spirit like printmaking or even with your motion graphics. It's very analog.

RS: It's fun to bring [a] handmade [process] into digital things. I work so much between scanning stuff and bringing it into Photoshop, printing it, scanning it again or something just to get different textures, and it's so fun. I learned how to do everything by hand, and then I learned how to use software to unlock new little moments, so I still like to bring back everything on paper and cut it out and scan it instead of cutting it out in Photoshop.

GG: Where do you find beauty these days?

RS: I find it in my own art, but also in the art that my friends are making. It's so special and fun to have friends who are also artists and see what people are making. It's so special because it shows you what inspires them. Everything comes from somewhere, and you can tell what people's influences are in their art, so that's where I find beauty. It is is also a really fun way to peek into your friend's brain and their day-to-day.

GG: Aww, that's great. I like how supportive you and your friends are when it comes to creating and putting things out there. It's really nice to know that people have your back in the creative industry. There can be times when people just want to bring each other down and see everyone else as competition.

RS: I'm constantly experiencing learning that. Not everyone has a community like that where you get to create with your friends, and it doesn't feel like you're all chasing after the same thing and only one person can have it. It genuinely feels like, "Oh my god, I wouldn't be able to do this if it wasn't for all of our skills." It's so fun to create with friends, and I feel like because we both were from Rookie, we know how amazing that is because we had that so young, so finding spaces like that is so special.

GG: How did you build your current creative circle?

RS: It's so funny. I feel like I built my creative circle from Instagram. I met Chappell on Instagram. I also feel like I wouldn't have known about so many cool artistic spaces, people, or artists if it wasn't for Tumblr or Instagram now. That's why I love social media: It really just helps connect people.

For example, [you and I] have never even met [in person]. We worked at the same magazine, but the fact we've followed each other this long is like, ok, you keep that name in your head, and you remember it, even if you don't get to see these people every day. It's a nice way to stay in touch with people, and I love being an artist who uses Instagram because it's a very different experience. That's also how I found other artists and built my community: mutual friends and the internet, and then since I was out there, it was just hanging out and crafting and being like, “OMG wait, we should do this and that and make fun things together.” When you meet someone who's also an artist, it's very easy to create things together 'cause the way you look at the world is always making art.

GG: Can you tell me more about your collaboration with Chappell Roan? When did that start and grow into what it is now?

RS: It was so special. We were following each other on Instagram, and then we started hanging out because she needed design work for her project, and then we became best friends. As we were building the world for The Rise and Fall of the Midwest Princess, it never felt like work; it felt like we were playing. We would have craft night where we would be bedazzling something, or we would be, like, going to flea markets or Santee Alley and finding weird pieces for things. It was very fun. I think it was bouncing off of each others' ideas.

GG: I like how you guys have that attitude where it's like, “Ok, we're living in this moment; we're taking it day by day but also celebrating all of these big wins.” But what are you planning or working on now?

RS: I'm working with one artist, we're being delusional and storyboarding 13 music videos – we're trying to do a silly video album. I just love pop music, and it's the funnest thing to work with, so that's one thing I'm excited about. And I'm working on a clothing line with a clothing brand. It's just a few different fun projects that I'm doing to try out different little areas I haven't normally held so that I can keep learning new skills. I wanna keep learning new skills, always. My favorite thing is to do something you're really bad at. I feel like it's so humbling, so I love finding things I don't know how to do and being like, "Let's figure it out." That's what the next year looks like for me—just trying new skills.

GG: What would you want to tell people who wanna get into creative direction or analog art forms and crafty things?

RS: Being bad at things is, like, everything. People stop doing things because they're bad at it too soon, but right when you're about to quit, that's when you're about to get good at something. Just stick it out. You can learn anything – either take a class or just play around with it until it makes sense to you, or just watch YouTube videos. We live in a time where there's so much access to different artists, and people are always sharing their processes. Just find what art you like and look into how people make their art. and also don't be afraid to combine multiple different processes to get where you want to get with something. There are so many ways to do one thing, and there are no right or wrong ways.

GG: I feel so validated by everything right now.

RS: I just wanna craft tonight. Now, I want to scrapbook after this phone call. (Laughs)