Graphic Reflections

I remember making notes about my first few graphics way back in year 2000. Influence of legendary graphic designer Paul Rand’s simple but powerful work, influence of the book Design For Society by Nigel Whitely and most importantly, the struggle of a difficult phase of life perhaps gave birth to such forms of expression, which—as a trained graphic designer—came naturally to me.

I wanted to exhibit some of my early graphics in an art gallery but the expenses involved made me drop the idea in favour of a small website called ‘Graphics for Society’, which I started in 2001 and closed within a year owing to dissatisfaction with a lot of graphics! I tinkered with the idea of starting a proper website for many years but always got swept away by the demands of my freelance graphic design career. Thanks to the fabulous blogging software WordPress, I was finally able to present them here.

The graphics here are extremely simple or basic in appearance and I certainly do not regard them as outstanding or as brilliant “award winning” pieces of creativity. Most, however, were conceived as a result of my day-to-day experiences and I hardly ever sat down to “think them up”! The graphics conform to “Freedom of Speech and Expression”, granted to every Indian citizen by the Constitution of India. I would say that the works featured here fall in an area between design and art. While in appearance they have a design-like feel, a lot of them (like art) try to depict an individual’s feelings about contemporary issues. However, a lot of these graphics make use of elements of design to depict thoughts and ideas visually. Through this website or blog, I would like to share these graphics with you, and with them, my experiences, realisations, feelings, problems, concerns and confusions. As a lot of these graphics are based on issues that affect us all, I hope you will find them useful in some way and your comments, insights, feelings or point of view shall be deeply appreciated.

Thank you!