Kriti

Romancing the letterpress. NID Print Lab, May 2026. Movable type is both nostalgic and foundational to developing an embodied, intimate relationship with typefaces and typesetting. The NID collection of complete and partial sets, is probably the most extensive and well preserved one, that remains in regular use in the country. I’m fortunate to have had my hands on it often, since first learning from @mcpatelnid in 1999. Letter by letter, pica and point size, tracking/ leading/ kerning by hand, actual lead leading and furniture, mallet and pressure—Like all making, there is an intimacy, rhythm and sensorial richness to typography learned and played with this way. The old lead—cast right here in the 60s—has weathered, bearing the memory of all the hands, compositions, pages and meanings it has touched. There’s a rush when holding and composing with it. The satisfying Tetris of alignment and composition calculations. Magnets and mallet to hold the block together. Repurposed print-waste papers, trimmed by hand on the guillotine, pressure settings. The squelch and kiss of ink. The physical rhythm of making impressions—foot pedal, paper alignment, blanket-roller down, roll forward, paper release, blanket up, roll back, repeat. Kerning adjustments, mirroring errors, ink-stained hands. The joy of working with no specific end result in mind, but just enough of a framework that gets teamwork and innovations going in our heads together. A sore back, a singing heart, a sheaf of prints to remember the thrill of it all. — Thank you again, @nidprintlabs @tarundg Yogesh bhai, Harshad bhai, @naanchawal @itsjaggi

Taste: some tasty bits 🍊 - Sneak peeks of some incredible work by @richabhargava @jasjyotjasjyot @naashamehta @suhanichheda @kothari_purvi @ashish_john_mundu @naveenprinters (and me) - book design, anthology, essays, creative direction, print design, illustration, embroidery, typography, lettering, calligraphy, handmade

“Whether we delight, disdain, love or loathe, we can only know ourselves when we taste—when we experience, we are exposed, in every sense of the word.” “What then if we were to reject this ‘numbness’? Not ‘think outside the box’ (yawn) but build our own and put whatever we want in it. Lean into curiosity, indulge our imagination, err on the side of excess—and then to say to the world: ‘Here, taste this!’ This, dear reader, is that box. This is Taste.” —Lakshmi Chaudhry - book, design, imprint, print, publishing, design, art, illustration, editorial

A year exploring taste—in a mix of marvellous voices, conversations, colours and crafts, provocations, textures and techniques. A box of delights, an indulgence, an invitation. Come, taste. - #bookdesign #printing #imprint

About five times in this lifetime I didn’t think I’d make it to 45. So it’s quite incredible to me that Here, I am. 45 springs with the sun as my centre 45, this container grows heavier, yet lighter. Somedays all wound, and others all flow 45, we finally know how to grow. 45 (hundred) thanks to hard-won lines on this weather-beaten face, 45 salaams to the many me-s this generous body holds: inner child: finally, beloved friend. Ache-r, maker, writer, eater. This cloud girl, that steel woman. Some polished professional person that makes me oddly giggly (she cleans up well?) 45 feels past object-of-desire, but only now really knows desirability. 45 is searching, to be found. Finally home in her eternal longing, 45 is a house of belonging. 45 is a woman’s thickened skin worn thin The river floods, so tired of holding it all in. 45 is a rain-tree that houses ghosts and kites 45 is all green, 45 is wild. 45 is fiercer hugs, hand holds, hands-on 45 is dreaming, making, drawing, pasting 45 is done tolerating careless cruelty, neglect, and no longer pretending to be blameless herself. 45 knows all her broken (and sharp) edges 45, the old protective defences are now cages. We’re putting down the weapons, (reluctantly, still!) relinquishing the shields 45 is pushing, 45 yields. 45 is risking, 45, allowing 45 is breathing, 45 sings 45 is so grateful for everything. - - - Lucky to have been photographed and painted by lovelies @bhavyapansari @katherene_deborah @th.mansi Jumpsuit from @turnblackofficial (who made it for me some years ago, it got lost with my Barcelona baggage, then miraculously made its way back to me, but didn’t end up getting photographed when it should have!)

7th of September has become a significant date in my life— It’s the day my birth-giver was born. It’s also the day four years ago, that my partner of 19 years died suddenly, leaving me the burden of his secrets that devastated everything remaining. As heartbroken retaliation, I chose for it to be the date I left for Barcelona, in search of the balm of quiet days at the easel for a while. It was a long while. Then also, this is the day I crossed the oceans back to Bangalore last year, in a renewed bid to find home. Ideas of home and family are slippery beasts, not easily grasped once your faith is so shaken. So it’s no small feat that the safest space on this scary date, is this space and life that’s grown around me. From nothing, from everything, from remains, from the smallest of seeds, from my choices, with courage, with sunshine, with help. I see now that Home is in flow, and Family is in friendship, first with myself. I see that rejecting everything else was the only way to find this me. There is a simple song and I’m holding on to it. 7 September, a day of births and deaths, endings and beginnings, an anniversary of loss, is now also an anniversary of an incredible win. For the first time ever, I live entirely on my own terms. Every spatula and song and story and breath in this home + studio is chosen bit by bit— and it turns out I make pretty solid choices after all. This home + life is very hard won and a lifetime coming, and I’m so grateful to be held in it. Today, more than ever.

ON DESIGN // GATHERING 🌿 Despite my protests about being a well-masked, socially-awkward introvert very prone to social overwhelm (it’s true!), I’ve loved gathering people for one thing or another. It’s one of my life’s greatest mysteries. The last few years, I’ve been enjoying sending out drawings and little letters as invitations: a sharing, setting of an intention, a compass. When I recently came upon Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering, I found words for why I do this— Gatherings without purpose have long felt unsatisfying. As fortunate, supported and cathartic as I’ve felt in Design-studio-people rooms over the years (abundant trauma dumping over drinks about clients, unpaid bills, talent attrition, email deluges, bottom-lines…) they’ve also increasingly left me trooping back home with the energy of a sad slouched soldier resigned to the masochistic entrepreneur life. I want better now, I want the energy of a Salon or an Adda, would that be too audacious to ask? A few months into starting @turmericdesign back in 2010, I called up my friend and NID senior @dahiya , in need of reassurance: “There’s so much uncertainty all at once!,” I bleated, “when does the worrying stop?” (Totally hoped for him to say six months, a year at the most) I’ve always remembered his chuckle. Never, he said, you just get used to it. Sigh, It’s true. So I say if there will never be a singular perfect answer, if we will always be wondering, why not wonder together? I’ve been ruminating on the ‘whether-to-studio-or-not-to-studio’ thoughts again over the last few months, so I figured let’s call everyone over and co-ruminate. Alongside snacks of course, a potluck brunch, and gosh did everyone bring over a feast! I’d forgotten how casually delicious and generous we are with flavours and food in this part of the world. Really, I don’t care about perfect answers as long as there is cake, and we’re all gathered together like this every once in a while.

My brother (who’s quite a collector of artefacts and antiques) sent me a new typewriter today (yay!) since I was mourning the loss of my beloved Remington, that I had to give away a couple of years ago. It’s a sweet yellow Brother (apt!) Deluxe 800, a portable 1970s Japanese model from a time they were streamlining their design language to a sleeker style. It now joins my 1960s Italian-born Olivetti Dora (that’s been in storage too long and needs a service to start working again too) Thank you @eccelectica , I can’t wait to start using this more now 💛 #typewriter #type #nostalgia #antique #vintage #design

A brand’s visual identity expresses its values and ambition. When the brand grows and redefines its vision, an identity refresh can help it transition into that newly imagined future. Even if the previous logo worked very well— much like renovating a restaurant or a building— an upgrade can offer new life while retaining the good bones it’s strengthened over time. We named and created the @perchindelhi brand in 2015 (with founders Vaibhav and @anandinaglass , and @madhav.raman @anagramarchitects ), a culmination of various heartfelt ideations around wine and coffee, culture and poetry, relaxed spaces and Khan Market. The airy, light space that we imagined— an antidote to stuffy bars and cafes we were tired of— found expression in the brush-lettered logotype and spiffy owl-butler mark. Something that transcends ideas of night and day drinking, combines ease with polish, handcrafted with approachability. In five years by 2020, Perch had grown significantly, had plans to diversify their offering. We came back on board & suggested first consolidating the identity. The brush lettering style of the OG logo had become recognised and worked well, so we upgraded it: The stroke angles and weights were calibrated to a lower contrast, bolder style, enhancing the sense of brush movement. A chunkier, more organic volume, like a bird. The baseline was curved and overall form was adjusted for an animated, buoyant energy. The r and h stroke endings were more confidently flourished to evoke the lightness, feathers and bounce of our own mascot, or symbolically, flight itself. We also experimented with introducing stylistic ink traps, like little memorable eyelets in the lettering, a further expression of birdy-ness. The indigo blue palette and typography system were freshened and expanded. Nikunj @moebius_in brought the mark to life. With all the new tech in our hands, we often forget how much delight and energy can be packed into a few seconds of hand drawn animation. 24 frames per second the old school way, thoughtful timing— see the difference? . . . Perch Saket with @aishanibansal @sandeepbishnoi21 Photography @debjitbanerjee_ Styling @tanvi_srivastava interiors @studio_lcd

🔈Travel through London (+ a bit of Bangalore) with my sketchbook 🌿 . Part 3 of 3 of this journal (which had drawings from Provence, France earlier) . . . . #travel #artist #sketchbook #drawing #diary #visitsouthoffrance #contemporaryartist

🔈Travel through Provence with my sketchbook 🌿 . Part 2 of 3 of this journal (which later also goes to London and Bangalore, India) . . . . #travel #artist #sketchbook #drawing #diary #visitsouthoffrance #contemporaryartist

🔈Travel through Provence with my sketchbook 🌿 . Part 1 of 3 of this journal (which later also goes to London and Bangalore, India) . . . . #travel #artist #sketchbook #drawing #diary #visitsouthoffrance #contemporaryartist