Practitioners.
Focussed on pragmatic design and creative thinking.

Moses Gladson brings over two decades of experience across graphic design, identity, and digital design and has worked in award-winning design boutiques as well as large corporates and global agencies.

Moses specialises in typography and identity systems, with a strong belief that design is omnipresent and most powerful when it creates genuine human connection. Moses’s approach emphasises clarity, craft, and cultural sensitivity, qualities that endure regardless of tools or trends.

At Strop, Moses focuses on helping participants develop strong design fundamentals, visual reasoning, and an understanding of how identity and communication operate in real-world contexts.

With over three decades of experience, Ranjit Mokashi has shaped design across graphic, experience, and product disciplines, with a strong focus on technology-led and e-commerce ecosystems.

His work spans global brands and markets across the US, UK, APAC, and Singapore, bringing deep expertise in complex systems, large-scale digital platforms, and technology-driven design.

Based in Chennai, Ranjit’s practice sits at the intersection of creative thinking, usability, and systems design, anchored in real business outcomes.

At Strop, he mentors participants to understand how design scales, and how thinking must evolve to navigate increasing complexity.

Pradeep Shankar brings nearly three decades of experience in senior business and leadership roles in advertising and digital agencies, corporates, and digital marketing companies. His most recent role was as CEO of a multinational digital agency.

Pradeep is widely recognised as a pioneer in creative offshoring and has worked with global clients such as Citi, Morgan Stanley, Target, JLL, Sephora and Unilever across markets including the US, UK, APAC, and Australia. Pradeep is also a certified mindset and leadership coach and consults on business and operations for SMEs in Australia and India.

Splitting his time between Australia and India, Pradeep focuses on leadership, creative business management, and professional growth. At Strop, he helps participants understand how creative work connects to organisational realities, business outcomes, and long-term career trajectories.

At Strop, teaching is grounded in lived experience. Every framework, discussion, and critique is informed by real decisions made under real constraints.

The founders have collectively:

• Built and led high-performing creative and design teams
• Hired and mentored hundreds of creative professionals
• Worked across agencies, studios, corporates, and GCCs
• Seen first-hand what enables careers to grow - and what causes them to stall

This perspective shapes how learning happens at Strop: practical, honest, and deeply contextual.

Strop’s founders are deeply involved throughout each program. Participants engage directly with the faculty and industry practitioners through discussions, critiques, mentoring sessions, and real-world scenarios.

This hands-on and real-world approach ensures that learning remains grounded, relevant, and immediately applicable.

Strop Academy is built for those who value thoughtful mentorship and honest feedback.

If you are serious about growing as a creative or design professional, you will be learning from people who have walked the path, and helped others succeed on it.

Strop
/strɒp/
A device, typically a strip of leather, used to sharpen instruments.

Academy
A place for focused learning and specialised training.

The dot
in our identity draws from Indian cultural roots, known by many names: pottu, bindi, tilak. It signifies the third eye, a point of awareness, clarity, and concentrated wisdom.

Together, Strop Academy stands for sharpening the mind. Through a structured framework, we focus on the foundational thinking, judgement, and clarity required for creative and design professionals to grow, adapt, and thrive.

Because in the end, great design begins with how we think.