Ideal Husband

As children of the 70's and 80's growing up in India, my husband and I fondly reminisce over instructional school charts that expound good and bad habits such as "Do not talk while sharpening your pencils", "No playing with electricity", "Do not throw garbage on strangers" and my personal favorite "Do not fall off the balcony while flying a kite"! On the occasion of my husband's birthday, inspired by these charming portraits of our past, I set out to recreate a poster that would take us down memory lane. Below are the results. Enjoy!(Images are subject to copyright)

Days 6 -25 Days of Christmas trees

MERRY CHRISTMAS all!

"By perseverance the snail reached the ark." Charles Spurgeon This last week my husband and I saw Christmas trees everywhere! From the fog-filled bathroom mirror to morning coffee spills and in the potato and onion peels as we fixed dinner. We crossed the mid-way mark of our self challenge this week which was definitely a highlight.  There were days when we were super tired or relatively uninspired but part of why it's called a challenge is to plod on especially on days like that, right? In this short time, I've learned that it's not always about doing something phenomenal. Sometimes its just about persevering and to keep on keeping on.

Happy Thanksgiving!

"It is not happy people who are thankful, it is thankful people who are happy." Here's wishing all of you a wonderful day filled with family, food and fun!:)

Festive Freebies!

It's here! and one can definitely feel it in the air and in the first flakes of snow earlier today and glitter everywhere. To celebrate the holiday spirit, here are some freebies! Below are holiday cards I designed by just using different decorative fonts on Photoshop. It was a lot of fun to create this and I hope you guys will be able to put them to use. The images attached are in high-resolution and all you have to do is right-click to save and print. Enjoy!:)

Of Album Covers & dog doodles

Shakespeare famously said "If music be the food of love, play on." Recently I had the fun opportunity to design an album cover for a popular Chinese artist (also the proud owner of a rather dignified french bulldog) which will release in a few months time. She requested that the cover speak of nature and the melancholic and yet whimsical essence of her art.

Below is a tiny glimpse into some of the selected artworks and the process.  Enjoy.

Busy lives & Business Cards

"It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?" Henry David Thoreau Yes- I have nothing to blame but having been "busy" for not uploading a blog entry earlier. To make amends, I shall in today's post show you what this lil ant has been upto.

Earlier this week I got thinking about business cards and the fact that mine was in desperate need of being updated. After a lot of random doodling, pinterest searches and scouring the web with no particular aim, I had my eureka moment when my husband and I suddenly decided to pep up our rather dull day with a game of playing cards. Soon after, I got to work and below are some images of my journey.

I wanted my card to be fun and reflect the dual aspect of the work I do which often combines visual and creative elements with research and strategic insights to generate new ideas.

Kaleidoscope

The series below are tessellations that play with basic optical grids and were created as I was reminiscing about my childhood obsession with Kaleidoscopes. There is something so absolutely riveting about the transient nature of the bursts of color and the fleeting forms encased within the hollow of a kaleidoscope akin to life itself!:)

Selfless Portraits

"Selfless Portraits is a collaborative art project aiming to bridge the gap between technology and humanity by encouraging small, creative gestures between strangers across the globe" Below is my humble attempt to participate by illustrating a random facebook profile picture assigned to me of a boy who lives in Singapore. Do check out the link for yourself & enjoy variety of individual drawing efforts. www.selflessportraits.com

Color & contrast mural mosaic.

As I begin a new project with a rather vague idea and a plan to go with the flow, I'm reminded of this quote by Nancy Willard "“I dont have a clue how my story will end, but that’s all right. When you set out on a journey and night covers the road, that’s when you discover the stars.” Stay tuned to see how this story unfolds.

Swimming with the fish

After a childhood scare involving water, I never quite learnt to swim. Now, it's a life skill that I hope to conquer my fears and acquire over the summer. In the meantime I shall envy these fish who make it all appear so effortless:)

The perpetual garden.

Lately, my husband and I have been obsessed with iconic mid-century furniture and embrace every excuse to go window-shopping for the same. Eero Saarinen's womb chair has been my inspiration to explore a backdrop of wall murals. The perfect chair to simply curl up in with a good book and over-sized plants that never need watering providing for a happy shade cover.

Project Print Finale

Fabric swatches printed on linen-cotton canvas that I just received from Spoonflower which can be seen on http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1900736  True to their reputation, spoonflower delivered in quality and speed and the print is now available as wallpaper, fabrics or wall decals.

Printed time travel.

It's been an eventful few weeks and I apologize for ignoring WordPress as days turned swiftly into weeks of no uploads. Here's a glimpse into a rather exciting project to make up for it. Converting doodles from my earlier post into a fabric repeat, I've been busy experimenting with swatches on www.spoonflower.com. It's an awesome site where you can print, buy or sell a wide array of custom fabrics, wallpapers and wall decals. My entire experience with them has been extremely positive so far. Will be sure to share the fabric swatches on a post soon as I receive them. Count down begins!:)

Wheels of time.

It isn't easy to imagine a world without the high-speed automobiles and airplanes we now take for granted. It's fascinating to think of how what constitutes "fast" has been constantly redefined through the ages and continues to be with every passing day. In the 1800's a stagecoach which could travel at 8 or 9 mph, and a small locomotive which could move twice as fast were amongst the most speedy forms of available transport, accessible only to the affluent. Today's post is a series of notebook sketches tracing the evolution of transport.

Of historic blizzards and hibernation...

An excerpt from

A Snow Burial by Florence Peacock.

"Dream not of spring-tide's blossoms, They perished long ago, And all dead summer's roses Are past; the autumn's glow Has faded from the woodland; The world is white with snow."

Apartment Therapy!

Many thanks to Apartment Therapy for featuring my work on their popular blog. Click here to visit the link. Nothing quite compares to an unexpected happy surprise!:)

Snail Mail!

"What a wonderful thing is the mail, capable of conveying across continents a warm human hand-clasp." Author Unknown Do you remember the last time you received a handwritten mail delivered by the Postman? Paper that someone had taken the time to choose, the texture of blotted ink and the smell of something special. Thanks to Ziggy shortcrust's marvelous blog, I do! In this age of instant gratification, it is indeed a great joy to receive an envelope of happiness (which arrived earlier today:)) that I would love to share with you.

This link details a wonderful journey of attempting to revive the lost art of letter writing (as well as quirky n beautiful elf doodles:) Thank you Ziggy! Keep up the admirable endeavor.:)

Dangers of the deep.

Some months back, I had designed these collections for a Threadless online competition (threadless.com) titled "Dangers of the Deep." I worked on the idea that the real danger of the deep is humans and all the garbage we mindlessly throw into our deep and beautiful oceans. Textures were created through handmade rubber cut stamps. The sublime deep-sea creatures swim the dangerous oceans, eating anything and everything in their path including the sea waste we create. If you are what you eat, what then is a whale?

Winter Cheer!

"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer."- Albert Camus

Of feather and folly..

Below are some flighty postcards and prints that evolved from terribly distracted doodles.