For the first article in this series we turn to India, featuring a handful of illustrators and designers who create fantastic work from minimalist logo designs and branding to surreal and storybook style illustrations. I asked each artist how their country and culture inspired their work, and they delivered fantastic answers. Enjoy!
Anagha Mirgal
Anagha is a graphic designer from Kalwa, India, who specializes in minimalist logo design, illustration, and more. You can check out her portfolio.
Funky Chameleon Logo
"My country, India, inspires my work to be very colorful, vibrant, and lively, yet be simplicity personified! It makes me play and have fun with the basic shapes. Like we have 'Rangolis' in India, where an artwork is created by joining dots and creating beautiful patterns!"
Wedding Card Design
"Indian culture is what makes me add those little details on a simple minimalist form. Like I would decorate a simple deer back with intricate dots! Its just like designing an Indian bride's gown. We just love decoration and always try to add it on anything we create!"
Bird Graphics, Volume 3
Celebrate Togetherness With Coca Cola
Animal Graphics Volume 2: Full Bodies
Unni, aka Seerow
Unni is an illustrator originally from Kerala, India, who currently lives in Cochin. His digital paintings are fantastic, designed for product, animation, and more. You can check out more of his work in his portfolio.
UAE Exchange Global Calendar 2015
"Growing up in a culturally vibrant place like Kerala I could have been influenced by local culture. But there was no deliberate move from my side to assimilate any of that in my art."
Animation Backgrounds
"Many of my countrymen have influenced me in my professional career as teacher, fellow artists and well meaning coworkers. The cultural diversity of the country has often provided original ideas to build upon."
Radio Mango Naatile Tharam
"There are pioneers in every field who do path breaking work and create niches for themselves. They are masters of the art. Watch them and learn from them. I have benefited greatly from doing just that."
Orchid Queen
Snow White and the Huntsman Study
Prashanth Murali
Prashanth is a freelance graphic designer from Chennai, India. He specializes in branding and design, creating logos and assorted design work. You can check out his portfolio.
National Bank Branding
"Most of my designs / branding are country related. In any which way you can see a touch of our country's symbolic features like Lotus, Tigers, divinity and monuments and more. Colours are especially the most impacting in my designs. The credit goes to the vivid nature of our country in every place."
Evadirse Branding Project
"You can never see the same type of emotions and people in each state in our country. Colours, ethnics, people, practices, beliefs are all different in each and every state. Definitely my country has influenced me a lot in designing and given me vast ideas on what kind of designs I make."
Allure Digital Branding
"Of course my culture has become my greatest influence in designing. India is a teaming cauldron of diverse culture. When it comes to branding and designing, culture always comes in your way! You can't stop it. Embrace it!"
Syndeste Branding
FlyLotus Branding
Lavanya Naidu
Lavanya is an animator and illustrator from Kolkata, India. Her vibrant work comes to life not only through literal movement, but with vibrant, brilliant colors and fantastic characters. You can check out more of her work in her portfolio.
"Every corner I've looked while growing up in India, I have seen vibrant colours. Whether it's on vegetable market visits as a child, or the spices, salts and multi-coloured lentils at the grocers, the inside of auto-rickshaws, people's clothes, and even our homes."
TEDx Bangalore
"I imagine, this lends to my natural draw towards vibrancy. I try to apply that in my work-space, my animations, illustrations, often in what my characters are wearing and even in their personalities."
A Long Walk for Bina—Ruskin Bond
"A lot of the influence in my work comes from my country and our culture, a lot of it comes from personal experiences and anecdotes as well. However, at the end of the day, I truly strive to create something that most anyone can enjoy and relate to, from any part of the world. A tiny space on the very vast internet, which can hopefully make you feel at ease and that can bring us together!"
Malgudi Schooldays
Illustration Set 4
Asian Paints Lookbook
Many thanks to the wonderful artists featured above. You can follow them further around the web at the social and blog links below:
