Somesh Kumar
Graphic Designer / Illustrator / Educator
I am a Co-founder and Art Director at FactorDaily, a human-centric slow journalism lab. Every year, I teach a few courses related to visual storytelling, illustration, publication design, and basic principles of graphic design at DJ Academy of Design, Coimbatore, and NID, Ahmedabad. I am also pursuing work on my graphic novel, Little by Little, a memoir about growing up in different parts of Bihar with a loving father who slowly turned into an alcoholic.
My very talented and close friend, Hazel Karkaria and I run By Two Design. We have been on a sabbatical because of my ongoing work on the novel, but we hope to be back soon! We are always keen on working together on projects or taking a course, so if you have anything in mind, do write to us at contact@bytwodesign.com.
You can always get in touch with me at somsesh@gmail.com.
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My illustration projects are on www.behance.net/someshkumar.
More often than not, I blog at www.somsesh.com. The blog from my formative years right after college is at www.somsesh.blogspot.com.
I post my sketches at www.somesketches.life. I am a photography enthusiast with a keen interest in analogue film cameras. You can view my photographs here.
At times, I post on Instagram as somsesh.
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Education
2009
Diploma in Visual Communication
Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology →
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Work Experience
2010–11
Graphic Designer & Illustrator
Going to School, New Delhi →
2011–12
Senior Graphic Designer & Illustrator
Brainwave →
Amar Chitra Katha, Bengaluru
2013–15
Perch Project →
An online resource for helping people rescue urban wildlife.
Done in partnership with Hazel Karkaria.
Featured on Project Rising by Co Design. →
Caring for the urban wild in an Indian context, The New Indian Express. →
2013
The Cricket Monthly – Designed an e-magazine designed for The ESPN Cricinfo. →
2014–Present
Working together with Hazel Karkaria on graphic design projects as By Two Design. →
Design x Design, Twenty Under Thirty-Five. →
Hazel and Somesh, the founders of By Tow Design about how effective communication is important, Indipool Magazine →
2014
Jal Thal Mal – Designed and illustrated a book on the subject of Sanitation for Gandhi Peace Foundation. →
We need more truth in our talk about sanitisation, The Hindu →
2015
Simon Carter – Illustrated a set of prints that were used in the collection launched with the arrival of Simon Carter brand in India. →
2016
The Printers Mysore – Redesigned the Mark and logo unit for the Parent Company of Deccan Herald and Prajavani, two established news dailies of Karnataka. →
A World without a Roof – Illustrated a graphic book designed by Sarita Sundar on the subject of Pastoralism for the Living Lightly Exhibition. →
Blue Elephant winner at Kyoorius Awards. →
2017
Newton – Designed poster for the film produced by Drishyam Films. →
Still art for motion pictures, Mint →
2018
Ek Tha Mohan and Bapu Ki Pati – Designed and illustrated a set of two books on the life of M. K. Gandhi, celebrating 100 years of Satyagraha, commissioned by ITM University, Gwalior. →
Snippets from Gandhi's Life by Sopan Joshi, Prime Time with Ravish Kumar →
Byg Brewski Brewing Company – Worked on identity design and environmental graphics of Micro-Brewery Restaurant with Aditi Dilip and Priyanka Dilip. →
2018–Present
Guest Faculty at Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, and DJ Academy of Design. Courses taught – Basics of Graphic Design, Advanced Graphics and Typography, Illustration, Publication Design, and Visual Storytelling.
2019-20
Pratham Books – Guest art-directed a set of 15 books for the Google grant, apart from illustrating a few.
Kali Wants to Dance, All Kali wanted to do was dance. But how could he? After all, in his village, boys did not dance, especially not Bharatanatyam. A story about dreams and aspirations and believing in them. →
Stagefright, Champa loves to sing. But she can’t sing on stage. Will she be able to face the huge crowd on her school’s Annual Day? →
Khusar Pusar, Oh! Oh! What was that? What moved there? A fun poem on the stubborn little cockroaches! →
2021
Dilli Jo Ek Sheher Tha – Publication design and illustrations for the Hindi-translated version of Rajinder Lal Handa's Urdu short stories on Delhi during the time of partition. →
2022
Vogue – Avantika Shankar reviews and puts 'Little by Little' as one of the six graphic novels to watch out for in the year 2022. →
Visual Storytelling Course at CEPT, Ahmedabad – Hazel Karkaria and I took a studio course for the winter semester with the Faculty of Design students.
Seed to Forest, the origin story of EkStep – Designed and illustrated publication documenting the journey of EkStep towards their aim of making primary education accessible to 200 million children.
Every time someone asked me such questions about EkStep Foundation over the past 2–3 years, it nurtured the idea of sharing our origin story. →
Finding Shamnad Basheer – Editorial design for FactorDaily's story on Shamnad Basheer, a legendary figure in the Indian legal landscape. →
Pankaj Mishra sharing the story of Shamnad Basheer at Agami Summit, 2022 →
2023
Publication Design at NID, Ahmedabad – Took one week-long workshop with Master's students at Paldi campus.
SCBWI Award for Upcoming Graphic Novel – Little by Little won the award for a Graphic Novel created by aspiring cartoonists who have an unpublished graphic novel.
SCBWI Announces Graphic Novel Award and Novel-in-Verse Award Winners →
FactorDaily – Revamped website for the non profit journalism lab. →
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