Anti-Bling Wedding Cards

Over the last two years, I have had the opportunity to design three different wedding invitation packages for close friends and family. The three sets you see above were tremendous fun to design as the clients in each case were open to various creative possibilities including moving away from the standard "Indian wedding card" full of religious bling.

The RED wedding card is the most recent and brings together Indian and Celtic motifs representing the bride and groom. I digitally drew the "flower" motif that has been variously used in the card, insert, menus, table cards, thank you cards, etc. The couple was able to keep print costs down as we printed in one colour on standard card stock.

The HAND-PAINTED card was for a smaller wedding and therefore we I was able to include some hand-crafted elements such as watercolour on the hand drawn flower and the addition of red/pink thread to bind the invitation.

The MAUVE card made use of velum as a wrapping for the three pieces inside. As many guests had not seen the groom before they recieved the invitation, the couple wanted to include a photograph of themselves as an introductory gesture.

If you are interested in having a wedding invitation package designed, please get in touch with me.

Two Recent Drawings: Details

I have avidly been working away in my studio, creating 18" x 50" drawings while dancing and singing to everything from D'Angelo to Stevie Wonder to Sia to ghazals. So far I have finished 4 and I don't plan to stop until I have at least 10.

These drawings are everything in my heart that I can put on paper. They are a document of where I currently am: what I do, think, dream and desire. In this way they are like a visual diary as I am only able to add to them in bits and pieces, after work or on weekends.

Keep checking back for more teasers as more drawings get done!

Legal Biz Card

Here are two images of a business card I designed for a friend. In case you were wondering, all the digits have been x-ed out for fear of a lawsuit (!) Which card do you think the client went for? Considering she is a Barristor and Solicitor who has just opened her private practice, she decided to be less risqué. She went with the red/black version, although the purple/yellow version is much closer to her edgy personality. Nevertheless, the red/black has been catching a few, um, criminals, er, I mean eyes!

2 New Book Covers!

These are both new illustrations I have created for books to be launched in October.

The black & white illustration is for "Conflict, Crisis and Accountability: Racial Profiling and Law Enforcement in Canada" by Charles C. Smith published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Using experiences such as that of Meher Arar, this book provides an insightful analysis of the links between the racialization of policing and law enforcement in Canada today and Canada's history of colonization, discrimination and racism. Join me for the book launch this Tuesday, October 16th from 9am to 1pm at OISE auditorium (252 Bloor St. West).

The colour illustration is for "Once Upon a Time in Bollywood: The Global Swing in Hindi Cinema" edited by Gurbir Singh Jolly, Zenia Wadhwani, and Deborah Barretto and published by TSAR. This book is a collection of essays that dissect India's "most" popular culture -- cinema -- through the lens of postcolonial globalization.

Shirt Tales: A Photo Project

These images serve as inspiration for my first studio photography project called "Shirt Tales". Shirt Tales uses photography to capture a moment in our lives through what we wear. It is an exploration of identity, geography, cultural and class histories, migration and sexuality. The way we dress can be utilitarian, but it can also be imbued with meaning and significance about who we are, where we come from and who we want to be. I am interested in learning about why we wear what we do, what these items tell us about our lives and histories and why they are important to us.

Shirt Tales is about where we are right now, in this moment, as women who are creative, sexy, strong, beautiful and full of spirit and whose histories originate in South Asia. The photos will confound any easy reading of who we are and where we come from.

I am looking for help from studio lighting specialists, portrait photographers, and make-up artists. If that sounds like you and you are available between now and December, holla.

Above images: (L to R) MIA from ID Mag Oct07, photographer Shawn Mortensen; "Deft" from Black Book Mag Spring02, photographer Jamel Shabazz; "Lagos Calling" from Metro Pop Mag #31, photographer Clayton James Cubitt