Quirk Box

Absolutely on point with trending silhouettes, QuirkBox produces a collection that is extremely wearable yet edgy print wise. Jayesh Sachdev and Rixi Bhatia conceived QB in 2011 if I'm not wrong and their burgeoning popularity is proof of how talented and business savvy this duo is. They have countless lifestyle products and furniture that my magpie mind lusts after but I present to you their very yummy ice cream coloured collection for your perusal.

Rishidev R.K

  "Rishidev rk, a man of many hats. Illustrator. Artist. Art Director. But the one he adorns the most is that of a sculptor. A Fine arts student from Kannur, Kerala, he has always followed his heart, right from his wall-scribbling days. Inspired by geometry in traditional art forms, his signature style includes a lot of colours and patterns. He started out his career in Bangalore working on several memorable advertising campaigns. In his free time, he has been seen creating designer sneakers, trunk boxes, clay models and other interesting artefacts. As part of his journey to learn and be part of bigger things, he has moved to Delhi and is currently an Art Director at Wieden + Kennedy."

Harikrishnan Panicker

Harikrishnan Panicker is a Denver based Digital Artist originally from Mumbai. Although his area of expertise is graphic art, his backlit paper sculptures speak of a precision that belie a digital artist. This nimble fingered dreamer draws his inspiration from his father and wife , who are both captivating storytellers. His pieces are created and executed to the soothing sounds of sufi music.

Of his work he says,"I think I make really fresh and interesting pieces of art. I have a digital art background and my earlier days were mostly working on the computer, My wife Deepti is the exact opposite, she hates using the computer to make art. She is the rebel, the explorer and I think that has definitely influenced how I work. We discovered working with paper and we kept evolving with the art. Its more tactile, handmade, has this raw quality to the art. We love the feel of paper. I personally like to be minimal with the art, and add that extra layer of complexity with use the lights. It has a lot of love, care and hard work in it and It makes someone looking at it happy ". Follow him on Thumbdemon

Anvita Jain

The incredible Anvita Jain is from Delhi . She is currently pursuing an MFA in Graphic Design at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan, USA. Her colourful chaos interlaced with stark , graphic piranhas, parrots with penile tails and phallic fish is all very interesting to me. So are ducks who's bodies are filled with gray matter.

Karan Singh

Revisit the creative genius of Sydney based Karan Singh, who I've featured before. Superb! Mr.Singh.

FLINTS

FLINTS is the underground creative outburst straight from the Pondicherry based design studio IMPPRINTZ run by Rahul Sureka.

Here is a range of funky graphic handmade paper products by FLINTS featuring DiGiTaLkOnG.

Completely printed by hand, each product is unique and has the essence of a fleeting spontaneity. The appeal is minimal+bold+earthy. DiGiTaLkOnG is a bold pixel character, grooving to an electronic beat, banging on his bongo wherever he goes. His edgy manner is quite addictive as he grabs attention.

The line starts with a KonGsizeBOX a utility board box, KonGpenStanD, a handy stationery stand to put a bounce to your day, and HanGaKonG, hang him around and get into his Groove instantly.

FLINTS is available at MASALA CHAI, Chennai

Amrish Kondurkar

"After passing out of the Art College, I’ve been in advertising for 7 years thinking and executing campaignable ideas to the specific needs of a brand. While working on designs that are comprehensible and communicate to a large audience I started getting drawn to the abstract thinking process too. I expressed this by experimenting with my photographic and drawing skills in my free time. I started enjoying the forms that travel and take their own shapes, which made me explore and experience further the new dimensions of the graphic language. In all of this i started blogging! which made me think everyday something quirky and break the rules which you yourself restrict by your own limited way of looking at certain things.....and yes still very much exploring :)"

http://meraapitara.blogspot.com/

Ritan Chauhan

Bollywood Kitsch revisited by Ritan Chauhan.

Shail Shah

 via we are debris.

Kamal

Kamal refers to her stationery collection as a triangular love affair between paper , art and a good impression. This Prat Grad lives and works in NYC. More lovely stuff at her website.

Mira Malhotra

I've featured the talented and fairly below the radar Mira Malhotra before . I find myself constantly amazed by her versatility and wit. Theres more interesting stuff here for you to check out.

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.