Lokesh Karekar

He had me at loco.

Lokesh Karekar's artistic skills are nothing short of superb. This J.J. Institute of Applied Arts alumnus knows a thing or two about design. One look at his stylized Indic script illustrations or even the rendering on his desi-hip t-shirt brand locopopo, is all you need to be convinced of this fact. In a sublime mix of austere line drawings and intensely hued folksy vectors, you see a glimpse of Karekar's visual identity. When quizzed about what inspires him, Lokesh dutifully pays tribute to his city Mumbai , amongst other things.

Your work is multi disciplinary , can you tell us more about what you do professionally and what kind of work you do at a personal level ?

Now its all mixed up, for me there’s a fine line between both.I don’t differentiate between my personal and professional work.I do pure design projects like identity design to creating Illustrations for brands, books, magazines and products etc. (Vodafone and GQ magazine)

Personally I do lot of line-art, T-shirt designs for my locopopo tee brand. Doodling or sketching up design ideas in my sketch book keeps my mind fresh as an artist. I am also planning to distribute my products to small designer shops.

Whatever project I do, I do it with a personal style and flavour. I think that’s what my clients like about me and they approach me for my personal design approach and style.

What is your design style?

I think my stuff is very simple, happy, sometimes bright and vibrant. It has a modern twist to the subject and touch of humor to the design.I enjoy experimenting, trying things out rather than having a fixed formula to work.I like to try new techniques to enhance the project like paper-art, clay-modeling etc.

My design approach is very young, bold and modern + Intricate, linier hand drawn + playing with colours + Good balance of shapes and forms.

You majored in typography, why the fascination with type?

I love type.I see typography as a design with discipline.I enjoy the process of creating typefaces and playing around with type and balancing forms with aesthetics.

What are your inspirations professionally and creatively?

I am influenced by bold, saturated and intricate local Indian design culture.

Also love Modern contemporary design styles and colours. I love holidays, clicking pictures, folk art, vintage posters, miniature art, local food, cutting-chai, local hand painted typefaces, taxi art, fashion, busy bazaar of colaba, Electronic and Indian-classical instrumental music, cloth printing blocks, etc.

What gets you in the creative mood?

My sketch book, good music, good food, beer, big blank sheet of paper and pen.

What is the future looking like, for Lokesh Karekar?

I would like to see my work on various applications like on products, furniture, spaces etc. I want to do more fun projects as an individual artist. And also want to explore new things.

What would you like to say to the readers of MASALA CHAI and to future graphic artists ?

I think new graphic artist should look at new areas of design ,like design for fashion, design for products, design for accessories etc; rather than restricting themselves to only print or web design.

More at locopopo.