SK · MMXXVI
Creative Technologist
Saurabh
Kakade
I turn emerging technology into products that help people, and into stories that make people care.
Creative Strategist · Meta Creative Shop
San Francisco
How I work
Spot · Build · Narrow · Ship
Spot the problem. Build the answer.
Narrow it until people care. Ship it.
01
Spot the problem
Where it starts.
Every project begins with a human problem the rest of technology overlooks: blindness, censorship, climate denial, the stigma on a region's rice. Then one question: what could an existing technology do about it?
02
Build the answer
The systematic half.
Give a technology that already exists a new job. The LiDAR in recent iPhones as eyes. AI as a free braille translator. A public blockchain as a safe house for journalism. Then find the studios and engineers and work with them until it runs.
03
Narrow it until people care
The human half.
Meltdown Flags began as glacier data and shipped as a national flag with less white in it. Made in Fukushima is a book printed on the rice straw itself. Take away until only the part a stranger feels is left.
04
Ship it
Into the world.
On lean budgets, with partner studios and engineers, as working things: an app on the App Store, a free web tool, a 296-page book, a pack on a dispensary shelf. At Meta, the same loop connects creative practice and AI.
The technology is never the point. The human problem it solves is.
Now
Currently helping brands at Meta build for creative automation, and building my own prototypes with agentic tools.
2026 · NOV
Built a working feature prototype for one of Meta's apps for the global hackathon. Installed on a phone, no hand-written code.
2026 · OCT
Judged Meta's fall global hackathon.
2026 · AUG
Judged Meta's summer global hackathon.
2026 · MAY
Founder OS, vibe-coded and deployed at a Vercel hackathon in San Francisco.
View →
Selected work
6 projects

LiDAR-powered accessibility
Dot Go
LiDAR turned into customizable eyes for the visually impaired.

AI-powered braille translation
Dot Translate
97% of online content is inaccessible to the visually impaired. This isn't.

Glacier retreat, redrawn into national flags
Meltdown Flags
A nation's flag, losing its white as its glaciers retreat.

A 296-page book made from rice straw
Made in Fukushima
Disaster, recovery, and resilience — written on rice straw grown on decontaminated fields.

Blockchain for press freedom
The Truth Wins
Censored journalism, made permanent and uncensorable.

The first 3D-printed braille puzzle
Fittle
Each piece forms both the word and the shape of the object.
Recognition
2015 – 2023
250+
Total awards
11
Grand Prix
13
Cannes Lions
Highlights
Cannes Lions
2018
Gold · Innovation Lions
Dot Inc
Cannes Lions
2018
Gold · Health & Wellness
Dot Mini
Cannes Lions
2016
Silver · Cyber Lions
TrueColours
Cannes Lions
2021
Silver · Digital Craft
Meltdown Flags
Eurobest
2018
Grand Prix · Innovation
Dot Mini
Red Dot
2019
Grand Prix · Digital Innovations
Dot Translate
ADC Deutschland
2020
Grand Prix · Design
Made in Fukushima
Clio Health
2023
Grand Prix · Design
Freedom Grams
New York Festivals
2020
Grand Prix · Positive World Impact
Dot Translate
Ad Stars
2020
Grand Prix · Human Rights
Dot Translate
One Show
2020
Gold · Design
Made in Fukushima
Cresta
2019
Grand Prix · Digital
Dot Mini & Dot Translate
Cresta
2019
Grand Prix · Creative Technology
Dot Mini & Dot Translate
Cresta
2019
Grand Prix · The Future
Dot Mini & Dot Translate
Ad Stars
2019
Grand Prix · Interactive
Dot Translate & Dot Mini
Clio Cannabis
2022
Grand Prix · Social Good
Freedom Grams
Press
15 publications
- Frontier Dialogues ↗
- Ad Age Creativity
- Adweek
- TechCrunch
- It's Nice That
- Horizont
- Mindsparkle Mag
- The Designest
- Branding in Asia
- Design Made In Germany
- Little Black Book
- Digital Trends
- Best Ads On TV
- Directory Magazine
- Ultimaker
About
For a decade I've started with a human problem technology overlooks and asked what an existing technology could do about it: the LiDAR in recent iPhones as free “eyes” for the blind, AI as a free braille translator, a public blockchain as a safe house for censored journalism. I was on the concept team each time, then in the making, finding the studios and engineers and working with them until it shipped. The part I care about most comes last: cutting the idea down until a stranger cares.
By day I'm a Creative Strategist at Meta Creative Shop in San Francisco, helping some of the largest brands in consumer tech, automotive and finance build the systems and tools behind their creative strategy and find their footing in creative automation, and working on the datasets and evaluation frameworks that teach generative models what great creative looks like. Around that work I build with the newest agentic tools and keep them sharp, and I judge and enter Meta's hackathons. This year that meant a feature for one of Meta's apps, built as a working install on a phone rather than a deck, without writing the code by hand. It's a good time to be a creative with an antenna for people who can now also build the thing.
Originally from India, built across four countries and six cities: Pune, Berlin, Prague, Paris, Munich, Hamburg, and now San Francisco. Recognized at Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, Webby, Red Dot, and ADC.

Full timeline
47 entries · 2008 — 2026
- 2026
- 2025
- 2024
- 2023
- 2022
- 2021
- 2020
- 2019
- 2018
- 2017
- 2016
- 2015
- 2014
- 2012
- 2008
↓ The foundation
Chapter Zero
Future Suit
An origin story in eight frames — a dial-up childhood in Baramati, the floor everything after was built on.