MDes Communication Design School of Design
Deepesh Sangtani
I am an interdisciplinary designer from India with an interest in space, place, and print. Playing with the intersection of visual arts and graphic design, I explore visual narratives through diverse forms of tactile design objects. My practice highlights and celebrates often-overlooked aspects of culture and community while evoking nostalgia and raising awareness.
Collaboration forms a significant part of my process – I love experimenting with the possibilities of how different disciplines intertwine.
I also love collecting maps!
Firki – Objects of Transient Belongings
Firki* celebrates the colourful, diverse visual language of hand-painted signs in India’s public spaces. The project playfully captures their transient essence through multiple designed objects, highlighting voices and narratives while documenting and archiving them. Firki takes you down memory lane embedded in a cultural heritage often overlooked as everyday ephemera.
‘Objects of transient belongings’ refer to the temporal visual elements of a cityscape that get replaced by more modern techniques and outcomes. Despite that, hand-painted signs belong to the collective memory and identity of spaces and the people navigating them.
The project outcome is divided into explore, celebrate and distribute. Each part showcases specific experiments with objects as an intervention, capturing the celebratory nature of the Indian graphic design style.
*Firki (n) A hand-made paper pinwheel found on the streets of India.
Part 1 – Explore
Part 1 showcases a collection of limited-edition rubber stamps created as a print-making tool for the project. The outcome explores the iconography and representation of Indian graphic elements from public spaces. These stamps are a playful reimagination of the authoritative nature of the Indian bureaucratic system intertwined with the aesthetics of stamps created during the British colonial period (Inspiration: Article by Projit Bihari Mukharji). All these stamps are part of a design system created to have movable/interchangeable parts to depict the transient nature of the signs.
Part 2 – Celebrate
Part 2 showcases the documented and archived designs celebrated through an art installation where the objects for exploration are pinwheels or Firki. Pinwheel type A represents the documented and digitised designs (Edition of 50). At the same time, pinwheel type B (Edition of 25) highlights the voices of the people (responses gathered via survey that engaged with their perception towards celebrating the visual landscape of India).
Project Links
Part 3 – Distribute
The third section of the project outcome shows how the documented and archived signages can be distributed using various designed ephemera.
- Accordion Book Design
7 X 11 cm
Editions of 3 (with one special edition)
Various mediums - Collectable Cards – ‘Voices of the People’
10 x 13.5 cm
Editions of 5 (with ten collectable cards)
Screen print and rubber stamp - Map Fold: Documented Signs
11.5 x 15.5 cm
Editions of 10 (with two special editions)
Screen prints (hand-painted screens)
Streets in Motion
Mapping the City – Elective
As a part of the ‘Mapping the City’ elective, Streets in Motion is a series that emphasises the constant activity and energy found in Indian streets while reflecting the dynamic nature of the scenes. The emphasis on the temporality and informality of Indian street activities in this title encapsulates the tone of the entire series. From children playing cricket on the streets to roadside barbers, such fleeting moments and the distinctive rhythm of daily life strongly emphasise the cultural context, showcasing the vibrant and varied street activities unique to India.
