FRESH! Arastan (Brand Identity Design)
Arastan is more an experience than a store. It is a place that let’s you take a piece of the desert
aura to your home. They have rugs, masks and other one-of-a-kind objects from the desert regions
of the world. The identity reflects this aura of belonging to the past. The colors are based on the
various hues of blue used in the desert cultures of Persia and Uzbekistan. The overall feel is
geometric though feminine and warm.
FRESH! The Fading Flower Markets Of Delhi (Client: Arch-I and Dutch DFA for Delhi 2050)
Delhi is undergoing a massive change. We are in the midst of a kind of progress that can undermine
the very fabric of the city. One of the recent examples of this "gentrification" is the removal of the
age-old flower markets of Delhi. There are three such markets, one in the south in Mehrauli, one
in Old Delhi's Fatehpuri and the largest flower market in Asia, near Connaught Place all have
received eviction notifications from the Delhi government who want to move them to a cold
storage in Ghazipur.
As part of the dialogue of Delhi 2050, we created silk garlands that depict images from these very
flower markets in a celebratory manner — a last "hurrah" if you will. You can wear these garlands
as a
scarf as well in many different permutations and combinations to suit your style.
Left to Right: Photographs of the various Delhi flower markets; the designs created
from these photographs and the guests at the Delhi 2050 event in the Netherlands Embassy wearing
the silk scarves.
FRESH! The Circle of Making by Tarshito (Clients: Venice Biennale, Italian Cultural Center)
This 5 minute film captures the essence of this conceptual artist who is very inspired by the
spirituality of every day life in India. His work combines the sacred and the profance and
often uses symbols and objects such as bells that are charged with meaning and symbolism.
For instance, he is seen being inspired by the temple bells in India and how that translates
into his artworks that he creates back in Italy.
Right: The video being showcased at the
MMXI Venice Biennale.
Concept, Cinematography, Editing and Direction.
FRESH! SIGNS OF INDIA (stenciled wall signage at the IKD studio)
Anyone who has been in India for even a small length of time would have seen some of the
quirky and humorous signs one sees on walls and in entranceways of various establishments
such as restaurants, cafes, shops and retailers. To celebrate the humor and sometimes the irony
of these signs, we stenciled the entrance of our studio with various commonly seen phrases like:
“Best Quality”, “Original Copy”, “No Outside Food”, “For Export Only” and “Stick No Bills”.
FRESH! PHILIPPE STARK (Concept for Packaging for 'Juicer') Stark's Juicer is world famous for its simplicity and beauty.The packaging shown above uses
the concept of the orange skin to clad the box that contains the juicer. On opening the packaging,
you see the juicer held in place by a 'pulp' sponge. The metaphor is complete.
DESIGN SCHOOL INDIA (DESI) (BRAND IDENTITY)
The 'desi' wordmark is used as a 'vessel' for various Indian symbols such as patterns,
vernacular imagery and type — symbolic for all the various disciplines of design. **Featured in Asian Graphics Now! by Taschen Books
FRESH! THE EMPEROR'S WRITINGS (Book Cover Design) Calligraphy by Ashraf Ansari
FRESH! IKD Business Cards
Six designs with fronts and backs shown. Various images from small towns
in India used. The images on front and back are arranged according to similarities
in image contrast and arrangement.
FRESH! THE LOTUS QUEEN (Book Cover Design)
Illustration by Kaavad artist, Dwarka Prasad
The kavad is an artform native to the Chittor district of Rajasthan (left). The kavad is a miniature version of a shrine and is used to tell
many mythological stories, which, traditionally were mainly the Mahabharat and the Ramayan. Today, the kavad has morphed into
a modern story-telling device and there are numerous kinds of kavads used today whether for school children or adults. You can view images that show the process here >
ELA (Brand Identity Design) Ela is a high-fashion brand that produces garments for women solely out of organic cotton. The clothes are
meant to be both stylish and comfortable and they hark back to an era where sustainability was part of daily life.
The mark that we created was to reflect a sense of nostaligia, organicness, feminity and of being rooted in craft.
The resulting grid has been developed using circles, which indeed adds to the rounded and feminine aspect of the
brand. There is a sense of incompleteness to the mark which adds to its sophisticated playfulness. The mark can
be used in many ways, the grid can be printed and the filled circles can be embroidered either color on color or with
contrasting colors as see here.
Right: Brainstorming session we had with our clients.
NITCO TILES (Catalogue Design)
OGAAN, A leading high-fashion company in India (Website Design)
TRUESO: An exclusive store selling high-end Jewellery and Silver Artifacts, based in NOIDA, Mumbai and Varanasi (Website Design)
Development & Execution: NeuroSys.biz (Arjun Dhar)
CONNECTIONS THROUGH CULTURE (Emailer and Logo Design for the British Council)
LOVE IN A HEADSCARF (Book Cover Design)
This book is about Shelina’s quest to find a suitable husband through
an arranged marriage. For the cover of this humorous book, we
created a series of icons, on her scarf, that are refered to in the
book at key stages of the story. The headscarf then becomes a
metaphor for her life experiences that also give her, the muslim
identity she treasures.
AMARYLLIS LAUNCH (Print Advert)
IN THE SHADOW OF THE GLEN (Poster and Invite Design for the Irish Embassy)
EKTA AGGARWAL (Website Design for an artist), Development & Execution: NeuroSys.biz (Arjun Dhar)
MELA (Brand Identity Design)
The identity for Mela needed to be “Rajasthani”, have cultural and craft links and yet be contemporary and flexible to change.
We used the triangle because it is a very important aspect of India’s religious and cultural heritage. The manifestation of our
mark is meant to invoke joy, celebration, festivity and playfulness. **Featured in Asian Graphics Now! by Taschen Books (2010)
THE MAN WITH THE PHANTOM TWIN(Book Cover Design)
An amazing book by eminent Neuroscientist, V.S. Ramachandran, often called
"The Marco Polo of Neuroscience"
looks at new breakthroughs and insights into
this yet unexplored world.
INDIA ART SUMMIT (Corporate Brand Identity Design)
DOCKMASTER'S HOUSE (Identity Design and Collateral for a posh London Restaurant)
Dockmaster's House is a listed building in London's Canary Wharf district, which has been
converted to an Indian restaurant. The final mark (above) is inspired by the compass rose and the
Ashoka
chakkra (of the Indian flag). The various brand collaterals (below) such as the letterhead,
business cards, bar menu, complimentary slip and e-newsletter and are shown below.
The final few marks look at combining the compass rose with the chakkra (of the Indian flag).
FAKING IT (Book Cover Design and Illustration)
Green Mango (Logo Design)
Green Mango is a social exntreprenuership website geared to help small businesses like plumbers and carpenters market
themselves to their target audience via the internet. In the reverse sense, it also gives the everyday consumer a portal to
find recommended vendors. The "O" in Mango has been used as a metaphor the mango itself, where the circle within the "O"
represents the seed that co-exists with the mango just as the small-businesses need to co-exist with their neighboring clients.
GREEN MANGO (Website Design)
Web design for a New York based social entrepreneurship company.
GEOMETRY OF ERROR A catalogue of Mekhala Bahl's Work (Catalogue Design for Gallery Espace)
Mekhala's work is very tactile and dimensional, which is why we embossed the cover to refelect
the real nature of her work and we die-cut the cover to reveal the tactile title page underneath. **Featured in Asian Graphics Now! by Taschen Books (2010)
ALFRED HITCHOCK Book Covers (Concepts for Westland Books)
For this re-issue of stories from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, we decided to use the very recognizable silhoutte of Hitchcock, but relate the
actual form of his outline to elements from crime scenes, such as blood stains, plastic bags (suffocation), cloth (for tieing someone) and arson. **Featured in Asian Graphics Now! by Taschen Books (2010)
MANTO SELECTED STORIES (Book Jacket Cover & Photography)
Sadat Hasan Manto has been called the greatest short story writer of the Indian
subcontinent. He was born in 1912 in Punjab and went on to become a radio and
film-script writer, journalist, and short story writer. Manto's stories are vivid,
dangerous and troubling and they slice into the everyday world to reveal its
sombre, dark heart.
BAULSCAPE (Book Cover and Type Illustration/Calligraphy)
Bauls are mystics from Bengal who reach a state of trans through music. They
are nomads and their beliefs transcend religious barriers of Hinduism and Islam.
The word "Baul" is sanskrit for the wind. The title is inspired from this connection
as well as the music that they create wherever they go. **Featured in Asian Graphics Now! by Taschen Books (2010)
POSTCARD PROJECT II
In this self-initiated project, I mailed my girlfriend postcards on a regular basis. These postcards travelled from New York to Jaipur, India. The idea here is to use visual communication to touch someone's heart. And to also
learn to create something beautiful that you give away—literally, since many of the postcards got lost along the way.
LOLITA and THE CORPORATION (Book Cover Redesign/Concepts)
Lolita: Humbert Humbert and Dolores Haze are complete opposites of each other. While Lolita is fragile, nubile and coy, Humbert Humbert is masculine, strong
and determined. The cover
shows this contrast by using a heavy typeface for Vladimir Nabokov (who like Humbert hails from Russia). And in the same
"playfully perverse" nature of the book, Lolita's name on the cover
is constructed from pubic hair.
**The Corporation: Won the 2006 :Output Foundation Award (Germany/Netherlands)
EXPERIMENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY (One-of-a-kind Photographic Prints)
Using Modern Materials and 19th Century Printing Techniques like Van Dyke. Palladium Printing and Gum Bi-Chromate
POSTCARD PROJECT
In this self-initiated project, I mailed myself a postcard a day for about 9 months. I had a few constraints for the project—the postcards could not be bought, they had to be mailed everyday and always list my
address and the date. I don't claim these works to be solely mine. Someone designed the original postcard and the postal service also contributed with their stamps and other markings.
