Mixtape Creative Studio

Hello! I'm Vinayak Varma. Welcome to my studio! I consult for brands and publishing companies: devising strategy, designing, commissioning, creating narratives, writing, editing, illustrating, hand-lettering, and much else. On this site, you can see a few representative examples from my visual portfolio. (The thumbnails on the home page will take you into individual project pages, where you can see more images and descriptions.) If you'd like to hire me for your next creative project, or book me for a talk or workshop, email me at: vinayak [at] mixtape [dot] in. For general comments and feedback, hit the 'Talk to Me' link (and don't forget to leave your contact information with your message). Copyright © 2020 Vinayak Varma

[vinvarma]

Portraits of Blues People (Round 1)

Quick and dirty portrait illustrations of some of my musical heroes: Big Walter Horton, Skip James, Big Mama Thornton and R.L. Burnside, respectively. This is a series that I hope to continue, time willing.

See these as and when they get done, on my Instagram / (at) mixtape (dot) in.

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I’ve been neglecting my drawing skills of late, so I’ve been trying to sketch more often. (Graphic design work and children’s books illustrations tend to take up most of my time.) They say hands are the hardest to draw, so I went straight for that when I began sketching again. The second image above is a preparatory sketch for a portrait of my grandmother and her sister, which I hope to complete in a few months’ time. The last sketch is my version of my mother’s family god Vettekkaran, a forest deity who’s traditionally shown in princely garb and an excess of jewellery. My aim here was to drag him back to his Adivasi roots.

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These are some logos that I created for blues bands that I’ve been part of in the past couple of years. In the case of Southern Discomfort, the logo that we finally went with is what you see at the very top. Kaveri Delta Blues was a short-lived identity that I hope to revive sometime later this year as a personal music project.

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Strange Worlds! Strange Times!

Cover artwork and interior illustrations for a YA anthology of sci-fi short stories. The book was edited by me, and published by Talking Cub (an imprint of Speaking Tiger) in 2018. The artwork was illustrated on Adobe Photoshop using Kyle T. Webster’s digital brushes.

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Buy Strange Worlds! Strange Times! here: http://amzn.in/d/eoEWOfu

and here: https://speakingtigerbooks.com/books/strange-worlds-strange-times/

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A few pages from The Sunshower Song, a picture book that I wrote and illustrated earlier this year for Pratham Books.

The story is loosely based on a folklore common to many cultures around the world -- that of a sunshower signalling the wedding of foxes / wolves / jackals / [insert local variant here] -- combined with the other popular narrative device of forest animals getting together to make music.

The print edition of this book will be out in the next month or so. Meanwhile, you can read a digital adaptation on StoryWeaver: https://storyweaver.org.in/stories/41047-the-sunshower-song

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A quick poster conceptualised and illustrated at the behest of (acclaimed chef and friend) Thomas Zacharias of The Bombay Canteen, to evangelize his ongoing crusade against the destructive and nutritionally-deficit basa fish.

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Illustration commissioned for an annual diary and calendar, based on the following quote from Nelson Mandela: “Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.”

Client: Seema Seth / Studio Sky (www.studiosky.in) for the CMR Group of Institutions

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Illustration and poster design for an ADI Bangalore event at WeWork.

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StoryWeaver: “Angry Akku”

As part of my ongoing work with Pratham Books’ StoryWeaver, I wrote and illustrated this children’s picture book on anger management.

In 2019, ‘Angry Akku’ was awarded The Hindu Young World - GoodBooks Prize for Best Picture Book in the ‘Story’ Category.

Like everything else on Pratham Books' StoryWeaver, 'Angry Akku' has been published under a Creative Commons license that allows anyone to freely read, download, share, print, translate and adapt the story and artwork, so please go nuts: https://storyweaver.org.in/stories/12433-angry-akku

In case you're interested in some of the thinking that went into this book, here's my initial explanatory note to the editors at Pratham Books:

“This story is based on recommendations by child specialists on how to deal with angry children. There are many reasons why children get angry: from being ignored, or slighted, or having their personal space invaded, to being hungry and tired, to just a slow day-long build-up of irritations boiling over into outright anger – these are just the tip of the iceberg. As most children lack the ability to express their anger through the kind of sophisticated vocabulary that grown-ups tend to take for granted, their feelings often go unaddressed, making them angrier still. Child psychologists recommend that adults take a slow, investigative approach to identifying the cause of a child’s anger, to acknowledge and give importance to her anger, and then to try and find creative and cathartic ways for the child to express and rid herself of her anger – this could be through drawing, or playing with clay or building blocks, or any number of other fun diversions. (Feeding the kid on time also helps!) The intent of this story is to impart these ideas to both children and parents through example. In that regard, it’s quite simple and direct in its approach, but I’ve tried to liven it up with some gentle humour. I intend, also, for the accompanying illustrations to be happy and funny, so that the end-result doesn’t come across as too preachy or moralistic. The final 'listicle', in the activity section, is drawn from a bunch of straightforward anger-management strategies that most adults are well-acquainted with, but which may not be immediately familiar to kids.”

[vinvarma]

Geist: Branding

I carried out an extensive rebranding exercise over this past year for Geist, a craft beer company based in Bangalore. Geist is the first beer company in the south of India to set up a production craft brewery that supplies natural, handcrafted beers in a variety of International styles to restaurants and bars.

These images show the new logo (see the old one here), and a set of other materials that I designed for Geist. The redesigned logo represents the art of brewing, visually equating the logotype (and, by extension, the master brewer’s final seal of approval) to the brushstroke signatures of great masters in the world of art.

I continue to be associated with the brewery as their brand consultant.

You can visit Geist at www.geist.in, and look for the handle ‘drinkgeist’ on the various social media channels.

[vinvarma]

Fairtrade Outreach Materials

Images from a set of print materials, including booklets and flashcards, that I designed and illustrated for Fairtrade Asia Pacific. These were meant to raise awareness among textile workers about their rights and privileges.

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Street Vendor Law Comic

A few images from a 20-page comic on Street Vendor Law, which I illustrated last year for the Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore.

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Frankenstein Wall Comic

Client: Hatch Public House

Last year,I wrote and illustrated this little combo-tribute to The Bride of Frankenstein and Young Frankenstein, which now runs along the length of one of the walls at Hatch Public House in Yeshwantpur, Bangalore.

FYI: panels 2 and 5 sit on the doors to the men’s and ladies’ WCs respectively (hence the emphasis on “Men” and “Ladies”, which had to somehow be seamlessly incorporated into the script).

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Stained-Glass Art

Client: Big Brewsky

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StoryWeaver: “Jadav and the Tree-Place”

For a few years now, I've had a growing obsession with Jadav "Molai" Payeng, the great Assamese conservationist who planted an entire forest all by his lonesome. My interest in him started back in 2010 or so, when I first heard of him, and not long after that we published a story on him in Brainwave (a little science magazine that I used to edit). I had the great pleasure of meeting Jadav briefly at the first TEDxBangalore, and since then I've regularly wondered why people / the media aren't making more of a fuss about this man and his extraordinary achievement. This is the kind of story textbooks would be full of, were it an ideal world.

Around Deepavali last year I was roped in by Bijal Vachharajani, my wise and keen-eyed editor, as a writer-illustrator for one among a set of picture books funded by Oracle India Pvt. Ltd. for Pratham Books' StoryWeaver, a fantastic children's content platform that was founded on friendly, open, copyleft values. I was asked to pitch a book for Bijal's series on environment and conservation, and, with no hesitation, I asked for Jadav's story. And here it is, a loosely-fictionalised biography of Jadav Payeng, all finished and uploaded: https://storyweaver.org.in/stories/5052-jadav-and-the-tree-place

The illustrations and text are all freely reusable, adaptable, printable, translatable and shareable. And the book can be downloaded in three formats: low-resolution PDF, high-resolution PDF and ePUB.

To order the print version of the book, go here: http://store.prathambooks.org/p_9789350226773?proid=9789350226773

Update: I’m proud to announce that ‘Jadav and the Tree Place’ has gone on to win the ‘Digital Book of the Year’ prize at the Publishing Next Awards, 2016.

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T-Shirts

A couple of t-shirt designs that I made and sold in 2015. Write to me if you’d like one for yourself.

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Oktoberfest Collaterals

Branding, mascot, poster and menus for the Oktoberfest celebrations at Big Brewsky, a microbrewery and resto-pub in Bangalore, India.