Me.
I am an independent conceptualiser, art director and a graphic designer and also the founder of Compassion Contagion, an online archive that has been recording act of compassion, hope and resilience through art, collages and graphic narratives.
I prefer to work from a moving train or a snow-capped peak than from an office cubicle. I started traveling alone several years ago and realised that ideas come easily to me mostly when I am hanging upside down from a tree in Kochi, chasing butterflies in the hills of Kumaon, stalking the headhunters of Nagaland, cycling in Corbett, dancing with Atsaras in Bhutan or sipping masala chai in the tea gardens of Munnar.
I have previously worked with Illum Design and later as a creative lead with their concept store-Play Clan, one of the first graphic design stores in India. My work there was mostly branding, research and travel based design bringing tales from Jodhpur, Banaras, Japan,Nagaland, Bhutan and other places to the forefront. As a freelancer, I have worked on various projects that address the issues of discrimination and social exclusion, campaigns designed to address early and child marriage etc in the social sector, women’s nutrition, health and reproductive right of adolescent girls. My work uses research and illustrations to communicate and simplify information so that it can be easily understood by a wider audience. My personal work initially started with making comic strips just to vent my daily frustrations but later led to addressing issues that bothered me and revolves around waste management, sustainability, and addressing the patriarchy through humor and satire. I also like to use design as a tool to create awareness.
CLIENTS
J J Valaya | Namrata Joshipura | Rajesh Pratap Singh | L’affaire | FDCI | Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week | Radisson MBD | The Park, Hyderabad | Mumbai Se, Singapore | India International Center | PSBT | National Foundation for India | Apnalaya | Pravah | Room to Read | BehanBox | Barefoot College- Tilonia | Wash United | WWF | Communities for Conservation, Canada | Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontorio, Canada | Karadi Tales | ICCO | Wildrift | Khirkee Voice | Tenacious Bee Collective | Delhi Comic Arts | Khoj Foundation | Simurgh Centre | Weber Shandwick, U.K. | Work: No Child’s Business | ICCO | Safetipin
COLLABORATIONS
Paul Smith | Oxford Bookstore | India Art Fair | Tokyo Fashion Week in India | Mehrangarh Museum Trust
EXHIBITS
Sandbox Collective‘s Gender Bander ‘Paste Up’ | Bombay Underground Zine Festival | Gayzi Zine Festival | The Zine Show at MIT Institute of Design | TIFA Working Studio, Pune | Art Book Depot, Jaipur | Participatory Design Conference, Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia | AWID Forum, Bangkok,Thailand
FEATURES
Ladies finger | Asian Age | News Minute | The Better India | Khirki Voice, an independent quarterly supported by Khoj Foundation | British Council’s campaign ‘She Leads’ - one of their most favourite women creators from India | Mint Lounge | Desi Creative
GRANTS
2024: Art Rights Truth Grant for Rafooghar- the house that mends, a community space in New Delhi where women, who live on the margins and have faced discrimination and social exclusion for years, gather and find space and time for sukoon (peace) and fursat (leisure) and express themselves freely through the mediums of stitching and textiles.
2024: Pollination seed grant for Rafooghar- the house that mends.
2023: Nagarathna Memorial Grant for Compassion Contagion
2021: University of York (Centre for Applied Human Rights) -ARCTIVISM for Manifesto for the Future, to shine light on alternate, local, sustainable models of development through the medium of folk, tribal art, graphic narratives and a DIY embroidery toolkit.
2020: University of York (Centre for Applied Human Rights) -ARCTIVISM for Compassion Contagion, an online archive that records acts of compassion during the pandemic through art, collages and graphic narratives.
