Minus 9 Design » Chennai

6,000,000 impressions

admin — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:27:53 +0000

6,000,000 impressions: handcrafting the book experience is an exhibition showcasing the process and output of Tara Books, at St Bride Library London. One of the things that make Tara Books unique is their genre of books made entirely by hand.
The enterprise is a fascinating study of craft and mass production. Tens of thousands of titles created in a small workshop in Chennai, India by hand using silkscreen and letterpress and book binding craft techniques are shipped to various parts of the world – LA, Berlin, Moscow, London, Tokyo…. the list keeps growing.

A6 invitation

These are books that, as Gita Wolf, Tara’s publisher puts it, ‘refashion traditional artisanal skills into fine contemporary bookmaking’.

Designing the poster and flyer for the exhibition was fun. Keeping in mind the spirit of Tara’s initiative, the publicity material was entirely (and painstakingly) printed by hand in India on handmade paper. The peacock on the poster is an image by the Gond artist Ram Singh Urveti from the book The Night Life of Trees.

A3 poster

Virtual Faces

admin — Thu, 01 Jun 2000 14:07:54 +0000

Virtual Faces [Typographic Portraits] was an exhibition of word portraits inspired by emails sent to me by friends over the period of a year. The exhibition was held in The British Council gallery in Chennai, India.

Using their own words (excerpted from emails), the concept of the exhibition was to reconstruct the personalities and individuals which had been erased or ‘flattened’ by electronic mail. Virtual Faces gave the words of the emails, a new graphic dimension. Friends were envisioned as PCO (Public Call Office) posters, postage stamps, business cards, books, and other graphic objects.

Unfortunately, due to a stolen portfolio situation, I have very little visual record left and will have to try and ferret more out when I head to the archive in India. For now, here’s one friend ‘Hitch’.

Culture Cafe

admin — Thu, 18 May 2000 20:04:36 +0000

One of my first clients in Chennai was the British Council. The British Council is a charity organisation whose aim is to create ‘international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide’.

The Council was an interesting, challenging and really fun client. Due to the range of activities undertaken by the Council, each brief was unique in itself, requiring a different approach and thinking. The projects I did for them ranged from invitations to plays they were hosting to maps for their library. Due to the lost portfolio incident, I have very little of the work I did for them. Here is a leaflet used to advertise the services offered by the Culture Cafe, a forum for young people interested in the visual and performing arts to exchange ideas and share experiences.