Shayaan Momin on Supporting DrupalCamp Pune 2025 Through Design and Community Involvement

Organised by the Drupalers Association Pune, DrupalCamp Pune 2025 is scheduled to take place on September 13–14. Among the contributors working behind the scenes is Shayaan Momin, a frontend developer and active member of the Drupal Pune community.

In a written interview with The DropTimes, Shayaan shared how his involvement with the community began and how it has evolved over time. 

"My journey began when Nikita introduced me to the Drupal Pune community. At the time, I was looking to engage in something meaningful beyond my day-to-day work. That’s when I began contributing by creating graphics and social media posts for the community. It started as a small step, but it quickly turned into something I became deeply passionate about.”

His contributions continued to grow during DrupalCamp Pune 2024, where he supported the marketing team and also volunteered. 

“Since DrupalCamp Pune 2024, I've been actively contributing to the Drupal community—particularly the Pune community—by supporting the Marketing team with graphics and visual assets,” he said. “I also had the opportunity to volunteer at DrupalCamp Pune 2024, which helped strengthen my connection with Drupal community members across India.”

For the 2025 camp, Shayaan continues to support the Drupal Pune team by creating visual assets for LinkedIn and other social media platforms. In addition to design work, he’s also been gradually contributing to Drupal’s issue queue, especially in areas related to frontend development.

“I want to continue contributing through design, event support, and even development as I grow technically,” he said. “One of my goals is to eventually help onboard newcomers—especially designers or frontend developers—into the Drupal space and show them how they can fit into this ecosystem.”

Shayaan believes that community involvement is essential when working in open-source. 

“It’s where collaboration meets innovation,” he said. “My advice would be: start small. Whether it’s contributing to documentation, helping in marketing, or fixing bugs, every contribution counts. Just attend one local event or join one Slack channel; that’s how I started. Also, as I frontend developer, I am also contributing to Drupal issues.”

For those who are new to the Drupal space, he encourages them to begin with what they’re already good at. 

“For me, it was design. Join your local Drupal community, reach out, and ask where help is needed. Volunteering for events is a great entry point. The Drupal community is welcoming, and once you show interest, there will always be someone to guide you.”

His journey into frontend development started from a curiosity about how websites work visually and functionally.

“I was always intrigued by how things look and behave on the web. The creativity involved in frontend development, paired with the instant visual feedback, got me hooked,” he said.

He began by learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, then moved on to frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue, and later started working with CMS platforms including WordPress and Drupal. Over time, he came to appreciate Drupal’s flexibility compared to other systems.

“CMS other CMS’s like WordPress is very limited, Drupal give us full control on Post Type creating Admin Page & Frontend page is very quick using Drupal,” he explained.

Shayaan currently works at Digital Polygon as a Frontend Developer, where he builds landing pages and reusable components using platforms like WordPress, Drupal, and HubSpot. The company played a key role in introducing him to Drupal and supporting his growth through training and project experience. 

“Digital Polygon introduced me to Drupal,” he said. “They have provided me with the training for Drupal and have been instrumental in my growth. I’ve worked on several Drupal sites—handling both UI and site configuration. With the support of my colleagues, I not only learned the platform but also got involved in the community, contributing to events and fixing issues.”

Technologically, Shayaan is particularly interested in Drupal’s shift toward decoupled architecture and API-first development. He sees this as a major improvement over the traditional backend-frontend setup he used in earlier projects. 

“With Drupal, I’ve been able to streamline that by using it not only as a powerful content management system but also as a backend service provider that integrates seamlessly with mobile apps and modern frontend frameworks.”

While Drupal remains a focus, Shayaan also hopes to contribute to other open-source communities to expand his perspective. 

“I plan to stay active in the Drupal community,” he said, “but I also want to expand my involvement in other open-source communities to grow my perspective and stay up to date with emerging technologies. I believe cross-community collaboration can bring fresh ideas and help all ecosystems evolve together.”

Shayaan Momin’s journey shows how a simple introduction and a small design contribution can grow into a meaningful, multi-faceted role in an open-source community. As DrupalCamp Pune 2025 approaches, his work continues to support the event and the people who make it possible.