Arts Thread

Bhavani Balasubramanyam
mdes communication design

Glasgow School of Art

Graduates: 2024

Specialisms: Storytelling / Illustration / Creative Direction

My location: Glasgow, United Kingdom

bhavani-balasubramanyam ArtsThread Profile
Glasgow School of Art

Bhavani Balasubramanyam

bhavani-balasubramanyam ArtsThread Profile

First Name: Bhavani

Last Name: Balasubramanyam

University / College: Glasgow School of Art

Course / Program: mdes communication design

Graduates: 2024

Specialisms: Storytelling / Illustration / Creative Direction

My Location: Glasgow, United Kingdom

Website: Click To See Website

About

I am a visual storyteller and facilitator from India based in Glasgow. My clients include Lucy and Yak, The Singapore Art Museum and The Improv Company. My practice strives to spark joy in the viewer, melding authentic, evocative storytelling with humour and fantastical elements. I use narrative structures and world-building to bridge the gap between the everyday and the extraordinary.My work revolves around the themes of mental health, my south asian identity, and most importantly, my cat Kevin. I have an MDes (Communication Design) from the Glasgow School of Art and a B.A (Architecture) from the National University of Singapore.For my MDes thesis, I wrote and illustrated “Avial” - a comic book that explores specific South Asian stories while hitting the universal emotional cores that make human beings tick. In my BA, I focussed on the intersection between digital modelling, simulation and the built environment using BIM and motion-tracking techniques.

Three Lives

This is a cover for Three Lives by Gertrude Stein. It was done as part of a brief for Stage 1 of my MDes in Communication Design at GSA. Since Three Lives is about three working-class women in the early 20th century, I wanted the cover to reflect the kind of labour of the time. The whole cover is embroidered on canvas stained with ironing marks and then digitally laid out. I also created a tablecloth-like pattern to extend into the flaps of the book jacket or as an end page. I tried to hand embroider as many aspects of the book as possible, including the main text, and the penguin logo.