Surasti is an artist, illustrator and graphic designer. Her formative years were spent in India, growing up in Delhi & studying visual communication at The Srishti school of Art & Design in Bangalore. After spending time doing freelance work she later moved to London to pursue a masters in the History of Art, graduating from the Courtauld Institute in 2016. She currently divides her time between work at a not-for-profit research & media Lab focusing on human rights, and her artwork.
As a visual designer she focuses on data visualisation and has expert knowledge of information design for web & print with complementary skills in visual storytelling and illustration. Adept in designing in multiple languages and ensuring the visual language is socially and culturally relevant for the intended user. She is particularly interested in campaign design, multimedia storytelling and using visual communication for social change.
Projects
- Iran Votes 2017This report on social media in the 2017 presidential elections is the first comprehensive overview of the Iranian social media sphere under Rouhani, and the only one that focuses on Instagram and Telegram, the social spaces at the heart of everyday users’ experiences. I created the chapter dividers using digital collage and used images of key players in Iranian politics. I worked on the creative direction of the publication and produced the final report for online publishing.
- Breaking the Silence: Digital Media and LGBTQ Rights in IranDeveloped in partnership with a number of Iranian LGBTQ organisations. It assesses the state of the LGBTQ community’s digital media ecology and describes how apps, social media platforms, and new community services are transforming the lives of LGBTQ people under intense pressure from the state and wider society. I was responsible for the creative direction of the publication. It was designed in fluorescent pink and green, colours that can be Riso printed. I typeset, designed, illustrated and p
Work history
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Visual DesignerSmall Media Foundation
London, United KingdomFull Time
My role at Small Media Foundation has moved from being the information designer to being the visual designer for the organisation. Along with this my responsibilities have also evolved. I now
create all graphic assets for Small Media including information design, data visualisations, editorial illustrations, social channel assets, identity design, short animations and publication design. I also give design direction when working on data driven projects, campaign narratives and visual storytelling.
Some of my responsibilities include:
Create data visualisation and information graphics for projects
Undertake a wide range of graphic design work across both print and web
Provide expert direction on the use of information and visual design
Lead projects when necessary from start to finish
Think creatively to produce new ideas and concepts
Work collaboratively with researchers and developers
Create a new visual language for the projects
Routinely liaise with printers and ensure high quality production
Look for new opportunities for storytelling and data driven narratives
Design and format research publications
Take part in training modules set up for the organisation
Work on all aspects of a project, from inspiration to sketching to mockups to final product
Review and revise work and provide constructive feedback when necessary
Take on new responsibility when required
Meeting with clients or project managers to discuss requirements
Prepare project plans and time estimates
Deliver high quality graphics within deadlines
Communicate ideas to team members and clients
Graphic DesignerThomson Reuters
- London, United KingdomFreelance
My role as a consultant graphic designer Thomson Reuters Foundation lasted several months working on two projects. The first project was to give creative guidance and produce moving and static graphics for ‘Life After Slavery’, a story about modern slavery. The second project was to provide animated maps for a documentary set in Kenya (This project is ongoing and due to conclude by 20th April).
Give direction for narrative and flow of the story
Create all necessary graphics and illustrations
Provide time estimates and produce high quality work within those deadlines
Communicate effectively with the team
Share sketches, mock ups and style inspiration for the graphics
Give creative direction to the story
Review and revise work
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Skills
- Illustration
- Data Visualisation
- Visual Design
- Delivering Workshops
- Motion Graphics
- Information Design
- Design Leadership
- Project Leader
- Visual Storytelling
- Campaign Design
Education
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Master of ArtsCourtauld Institute of Art
- London, United Kingdom
Masters of Arts in History of Art specialising in Persian Painting and Transcultural Visuality: from the Mongols to the Safavids.
My dissertation, THE IMPERIAL SUBTEXT: A Pictorial and Discursive Reading of the Akbarnama, looked at the imperial image of the third Mughal emperor Akbar,
issuing from the official biography of his reign, the Akbarnama. I argued that his
monarchical representation was cultivated methodically over time and then
consolidated by the author Abu’l Fazl, in the Akbarnama. The historical nature of the
manuscript and it’s paintings casts Akbar as an epitome of kingship that employs
regional and ancestral mytho-hisorical attributes. The manuscript becomes a
significant tool for propagating the imperial Mughal image to a contemporaneous
audience and for posterity. Through an investigation of the dissonance between
the literary text of the Akbarnama with its accompanying paintings the methods and
processes of the historian and the artists are revealed.
The dissertation studies the paintings by intertwining the literary reading of
the Akbarnama with the historical reality of the time. The scrutiny of the Akbarnama
paintings is focused on two central themes, the sanctity of his infancy and his image
as a hunter-king. The absence of such a uniform image prior to the biography is
emphasised by an analysis of the paintings portraying Akbar before Abu’l Fazl; the
role of Akbar’s court in articulating these identities is asserted. The research
concludes with an examination of the philosophical and religious attitudes that
motivated Akbar’s representations as a king of a multi-confessional empire.
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Bachelor of Arts (BA) Srishti Institue of Art, Design and Technology
- Bengaluru, India
Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication
My final project, Mirages of the Past, was based on the idea of appreciating Bangalore and its past through creating alternative histories of the city.
The alternative histories of the city present themselves through maps, or rather art pieces you can use to navigate through the fictional alternatives of Bangalore. The project is comprised of three maps, of a city under an extended British colonial rule, the city as a French colony, and the city as we know it, Modern Bangalore. Each map has a guidebook with stories and anecdotes which relate to certain neighbourhoods or buildings.