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voice | shivani parasnis
CONVERSATION WITH ASH HIGHFILL
SHIVANI PARASNIS Biotechnologist turned graphic designer PRONOUNS She, her
Where do you draw inspiration from? I grew up in Mumbai, India, and moved to the US a couple of years ago, so a lot of the work I did at the beginning of my career drew inspiration from what I grew up seeing and experiencing. Currently, the idea of being influenced by the things around me is still the same, but now I feel my work has numerous layers that meld influences from the East and West. I love things and processes that are analog: illustrations on old matchboxes from India, vintage packaging that hasn’t changed in a million years, textures from old cassettes and VHS tapes, and lettering and colors from old movie posters.
Tell me about how you begin designing a typeface. I am trying to be more experimental and free in my practice, and drawing interesting letters has been a way to let myself go beyond the usual. I attended a workshop on Korean type design at MICA, where the assignment was to draw Hangul letters using some insane grids. I took the same grids and used them
to design Latin letters, and the result was some experimental lettering pieces. Hangul letters are extremely geometric and lend themselves to all kinds of variations, so it was so refreshing to use those modular forms for a totally different script, all based off of the same grid. This process blew my mind, and I pursued the same idea and used it to create a whole typeface for my thesis.
I love the hazy, retro mood of your Risographs. Riso printing is more or less like a hybrid of a copier machine and screen printing. Each color is printed as a separate layer, leaving much room for experimentation. The colors are gorgeous, and the textures produced naturally add beauty to