Ravi Vasavan is an artist, designer, engineer, and founder who has always been drawn to the fringes. Creating and solving problems across disciplines and industries, finding convergences others haven't imagined.
He is co-founder of Lexi, asking the question, can we make AI dream in gestures? Lexi is creating new pathways for human and machine co-creation rooted in the gestural and spatial nature of human expression.
Before Lexi, he spent nearly two decades making things. Five years at Koto in London — one of the world's most respected brand studios — working with artificial intelligence leaders, a mix of startups and established brands. He led brand, product, and strategy at Convo, and has had an independent practice running since 2006 spanning 3D art, editorial, brand, product, and interactive work.
In 2021, he and his partner Emma created "Ravi & Emma" with SBS Australia — an interactive documentary using AI sign recognition to immerse hearing audiences in Deaf communication through their love story. It won the IDFA Special Jury Award for Creative Technology, a Walkley Innovation Award, was a SXSW finalist, and a Webby Honoree. In 2022, he co-founded the Deaf Arts Residency (Dare), a collective creating space for Deaf artists to work in their own language.
Born Deaf to Deaf parents, Ravi grew up in Australia immersed in Deaf community. He could sign in two languages before he could understand English — you could say Auslan is his "mother tongue," or perhaps "fingers." (Semantics.) Being visually oriented by nature, he was attracted to art and design early on.
When not doing any of that, he spends his time making perfectly leoparded pizza dough, walking his greyhound Joey, or figuring out how to reorganise the freezer now that Arlo exists.
