Beyond the
Spoken and Written.

Bhavya Desai Illustrations studio, with over 11 years of experience, has been working with leading brands to celebrate the unique culture of India through illustrations.

Our work is inspired by the vibrant landscapes, the quaint details, and the everyday beauty of Indian life.

Let's connect

150+

clients

12782

drawing hours

2039

cups of coffee

Why illustrations?

Don't Just Tell Your Story, Illustrate It!

Stand out with illustrations that infuse Indianness and humor, turning your brand's story into a visual experience.

Services

Services Offered

Product Packaging

Packaging that speaks volumes without saying a word. Quite literally!

How a Feature Wall can change the look of your office by Bhavya Desai Illustrations

Feature Walls & Signage

Custom-designed visuals that spark conversations and uplift your environment.

Personalized Illustration

Celebrate life's milestones with personalized art that captures the essence of your event.

Marketing

Illustrations that capture your brand's story, engage your audience, and drive action.

Merchandise

Unique lifestyle products that spark joy and express your individuality.

Children's Book & Graphic Novel

Original illustrations that breathe life into your narratives, resonating with a broad audience and setting your book apart.

From individuals to enterprises, we bring your stories to life with quirky, character-rich illustrations.

See work

Trusted by Industry Leaders

Be a part of the community that believes in and has experienced the power of our creative solutions.

Amar chita katha by Bhavya Desai Illustrations

Feature wall illustration for DHL Chennai

Lamborghini Customer Gratification campaign

Festive Campaign for Caratlane by Bhavya Desai Illustrations

Illustrator for Harper Collins Publication

Design Illustrated Information content for Children - Client proejct Velammal International School

Chirpy Clients and Journalists

“His artworks are a reflection of Chennai's people. From working on relatable series to finding color inspiration in the spice boxes, to showcasing the chaotic train journey, to showcasing old heritage eateries, we love how this Chennai artist is illustrating and finding art in small little things!”

Gowri S.

Journalist, The Hindu

Check Out Our Newsletter

Join us behind the scenes for a glimpse into my artistic process, from concept to completion.

Find us on socials

Illustration 1: 2014 // Illustration 2: 2020
Posting this to show what consistency can do for you. ✏️

—
11 years ago, when I was just figuring out my heading, I started drawing people.
With barely any practice and discipline, I was limited by a lot of principals of drawing.
I just simply couldn’t understand why i couldn’t draw a decent looking character from my imagination. My proportions were all over the place and my characters looked scary than cute. 😅

Looking back at my own feed, I see a tiny evolution. Can you? :)

Any fans of the good old AMBI? 🙋
HM Ambassador has been on my wish list forever, what a beauty.

Dedicating Day 16 of the 30-Day “Life in Basic Shapes” challenge to my all-time favourite car 🚗

Commissioned work • Illustrations for an architecture firm's highlighter window.

I missed creating dense illustrations that fill up the entire canvas. The process is time-consuming, but the results are worth it.

Despite battling a bad cold, my excitement shines through my mask 😷.

Draw our ride in 20 basic shapes and show me what you've got. Vroom vroom let’s go 🛺

Day 15 of 30-Day Challenge of “Life in Basic Shapes” where I breakdown scenes around me into shapes that we all love

At Rishikesh cafes, servers multitask with heavy plates and orders, greeting us warmly as we unwind by the Ganges ☀️

14/ 30-Day Challenge of ‘Life in Basic Shapes’ where I breakdown scenes into shapes we all love.

As an illustrator, stepping out is essential. Even if it’s just a walk down your street, it still counts.
Hope you’re taking breaks from time to time. If not, take this as a sign and step way from your desk :)

—
I spent 12 days in Rishikesh a few months ago. One of the main reasons was that I could sense a burnout coming. Over the last few years, I’ve learned to spot it in advance.

The trip was all about ideating on fresh concepts, sketching in a new environment, and soaking in a different region to spark newer ideas.
☀️

6 am scenes at the Ghats in Rishikesh. 🏊

13/ 30-Day Challenge of “Life in Basic Shapes” where I breakdown scenes around me in basic shapes to build on it.

If your yoga instructor can’t touch their toes but charges like a guru… namaste and walk away.

Day 12/ 30-Day Challenge of Life in Basic Shapes where I breakdown scenes around me in basic shapes. ✏️

From the archive of Rishikesh.

If this feels like a future you want, drop a ☀️

Day 11/ 30-Day Challenge — “Life in Basic Shapes”
Where I breakdown scenes or people around me in basic shapes and build on it.

From my Rishikesh archive.

The sneezy affair.
Who’s that someone around you has an explosive sneeze where it feels like their insides are gonna burst out? 👃

—
Day 10 of 30-Day Challenge - ‘Life In Basic Shapes’ where I breakdown scenes around me into basic shapes. Come draw along with me:)

The early morning dip, Rishikesh
.
Day 9 of 30-Day Challenge - “Life in Basic Shapes” where I breakdown scenes around me into basic shapes that we all love!

⬅️Swipe to see the process breakdown.
Come draw, give it a shot ✏️

Am I the only one who prefers auto rides over everything?

Imagine a world where knowing “enough” is a strength and sharing comes naturally.

Day 8 of 30-Day Challenge
‘Life in Basic Shapes’ where I breakdown people around me in basic shapes that we all love - squares, triangles, circles and so on.

On their way to attain Moksha, Just… slightly late.

Day 7 of 30-Day Challenge
‘Life in Basic Shapes’ where I breakdown people around me in basic shapes that we all love - squares, triangles, circles and so on.

Come draw along,✏️

Learnings of 2025 • With the year almost ending, I wanted to note down a few things that really shaped me. ✏️

Could you resonate with me. What is your top learning of the year?

Day 6 of 30 Day Challenge: Sketched a familiar kind of urban loneliness. He runs a whole company, but can’t outrun the silence at home. So he adopted a dog.

‘Life in Basic Shapes’ where I breakdown people around me in basic shapes that we all love - squares, triangles, circles and so on. Draw along

Family offering the ahuti in a chain.

Day 5 of 30-Day Challenge of “Life in Basic Shapes” where I breakdown people around me into basic shapes that we are all familiar with.
Swipe to see my illustration process.

Day 4: An elderly lady, and her cat.
Time-lapse at the end if you want to peek behind the process.

Day 3: There’s always a little more room on your plate at someone else’s wedding.

Quick scribbles of a bunch of people at an event, mid-conversation and reconnecting.

Looking forward to a fun, Once-a-week session where I break down the things around me. I’ll post one every Saturday, so if you want to try your hands at it, you’ll have the whole weekend. Feel free to refer to these posts… and copy!

Illustrating characters (or anything, really) can feel overwhelming. In my talks with college students, I always focus on building observational skills first, the drawing part comes with time and practice.
The real challenge is learning how to break down what’s in front of you. So that’s what we’ll do here, together:
observe → break down → recreate Let’s make this a fun little weekly exercise for all of us ✏️✨

I made a tiny comic about art styles and how to stumble into your own ☀️

Waking up grateful for everything we’re building at Pets of Paradise and for this little universe of characters we’re creating along the way.

As a part of Samsung Creators Jam Challenge, I used Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 to create my favourite scene in Mumbai.

I was nominated by @artofchai to take up the challenge, and take it further and nominate @creatibeeti
Have fun!

#TeamGalaxy #GalaxyTabS11Series #Creators.Jam #Ad #samsung

One thing I’m still learning is to stop doing everything by myself and to actually work as a team so we can grow faster and better!

On my last trip to Rishikesh, I was eating breakfast and watching a group of people rafting. The newbies were all rowing at their own pace, completely out of sync. The raft wasn’t even facing the right direction before entering the rapids!
 It made me realise how important teamwork and rhythm really are.
These small solo trips teach me a lot.

I like noticing things around me and bringing those lessons back into my everyday life.
#learningnewthings #teamwork

The fish market at Thiruvanmiyur used to be a regular stop for me.
 Booshy, our family’s late cat, lived 15 majestic years and somehow always insisted on clean, fresh food. He never settled for anything less than five fresh sardines a meal.

The akka’s at the market knew this, and they always had the heart to slip in a couple of extra fish. Soon, the entire market knew there was this one fellow who came in only to buy fish for his cat.

Over time, it stopped feeling transactional. There was one old lady I wish I had asked her name, who would even add a few bigger fish for me to cook for myself 🐟

#indieCat #Royal #chennai

Approved by the highest order, His Royal Whiskers.
.
.
. #indieCat #catmeals

We’ve finally got a great range of meals coming up for your dogs! 🐶 (Not that the dogs dislike our cat meals, quite a few I know live on them! 😄)

The packaging for these was treated a little differently from our other ranges. Barkkins leans toward clean layouts, lots of white space, and accent colours that help distinguish each meal. What fun!

Tomorrow, I hand this over to the rest of the team so it can reach you sooner than you think.

Hard to believe this illustration is already two years old. Still one of my absolute favourites from the book.
.
.
.
.
#childrensbookart
#kidlitart
#picturebookillustration
#kidsbookillustrator
#kidlitartist

I pack light for Mumbai mostly to make room for all the Colaba T-shirts 🙃
.
.
.
[ Mumbai colaba travels ]

Peddar Rd, Mumbai.
.
.
#urbansketch #mumbai

Morning walk for a Royal IndieCat🐱
.
.
. #indiecat #royal #cats_of_instagram

When I signed up for this commissioned project, I was asked if I had ever worked on something of this scale before.
 My response was simple: scale doesn’t intimidate me. When I sit down to draw on my iPad, no matter how large the final output, it feels like just another canvas opening up in front of me.

Truth be told, I was shitting bricks on the inside, but I couldn’t let it show.

For this feature wall, I proposed an isometric approach. It allowed every department and section to be seen clearly while providing a comprehensive view of the layout. In terms of color, I suggested leaving ample white space. At such a monumental scale, too many colors would make the wall feel heavy and overwhelming.
The process was incredibly smooth. The artwork went through just one minor round of revisions before it was approved for print. From start to finish, it was one of the fastest turnarounds I’ve experienced. Just one week to complete the entire illustration and three days for the printing vendor to bring it to life.
Special shoutout to @adobecreativecloud ‘s Fresco app that made working on this project effortless.
#featurewall #chennai #project

1,512 sqft | Mahabalipuram | Medical College

Working on this 1512 sqft feature wall was a great opportunity for me.
The client brief was simple: he wanted me to capture a medical student’s journey through the years on the wall, highlighting the various departments and subjects they go through along the way.

To get this rolling, I had complete access to Chettinad Hospital and the college. I spent the day sitting through surgeries in the OT, visiting different departments and labs, and even encountering bodies in the dissection hall, which completely took away my appetite for the day, and I almost fainted when I came close to one.

More stories on how I went about this project are coming up in the next posts.
.
.
#FeatureWall #MuralArt #HospitalArt#publicart

The core team of Pets of Paradise finally met in person after two whole years!

While we had plenty of other meetings lined up, the four of us took out time to focus on what truly matters in pop and figuring out our next steps and vision for PoP.

It’s one thing to know your art and the difference it brings to the industry, but a whole other challenge to run the show, scale it with clarity, and build momentum.

The first part comes naturally, the second… I’m still learning, making mistakes along the way, and slowly figuring out what it really takes to keep it all moving forward.

Grateful to my fellow co-founders for showing up, bringing their best, and walking this journey together.

1,512 sqft | Mahabalipuram | Medical College
 A couple of days ago, I wrapped up one of my largest feature walls yet and it still feels surreal!

This post captures just how massive this project was. Trying to imagine or draw this scale on an iPad screen felt almost impossible.

More details, stories, and behind-the-scenes from this project coming up in the next few posts.
.
.
#MedicalCollege #Mahabalipuram #IndianArtist #featurewall

When the workload piles up, it’s easy for quality to slip.
I tell my team the goal isn’t to avoid pressure, but to balance it and still bring our best.
These phases test our limits but they also prove that even under pressure, we can deliver work we’re proud of.
Packed and pressed, but still our best ☀️

While airborne, just as the pilots announced our descent and the seat belt sign lit up, the passenger next to me leaned over and asked how to buckle his seat belt.

He had clearly missed two important things: the cabin crew’s demo and the safety card right in front of him.
I picked up the card and thought if I added my own spin to it, what would it look like?

Over the years, I’ve found that a touch of humour often helps people remember serious information.
The visuals stick, and the message does its job.

With about an hour left before landing and before being reminded to shut my tray table, I quickly sketched one section of the card.

This is what I came up with. I’ll keep building on the rest of the safety instructions as part of a series called: Fly Safe with Ranga.

Next time you fly, maybe you’ll think of it 😀

When I was ideating on IndieCat Royal, our upcoming premium range of cat meals, I realized I already had two little royals sitting right at home as reference 😺

I spent 12 days in Rishikesh a few months ago. One of the main reasons was that I could sense a burnout coming. Over the last few years, I’ve learned to spot it in advance.

So instead of waiting to hit that phase and then figuring out how to recover, I decided to take a break beforehand.
The trip was all about ideating on fresh concepts, sketching in a new environment, and soaking in a different region to spark newer ideas.

As an illustrator, stepping out is essential. Even if it’s just a walk down your street, it still counts.

I’ve realized how important it is to start my mornings right.

Even losing an hour here or there throws off my entire day, leaving me scrambling to catch up and staying up late.

Can’t believe I dug up these photos from 2016. Nine years ago feels like another lifetime. I was still at an architecture firm then, waiting on SketchUp Vray to finish spitting out an interior render. Most likely an interior view. I was pretty good at making them look realistic… the only problem was each render took four hours or more.

By the time one finished, I’d already had multiple tea breaks, distracting colleagues, and wondered why I wasn’t doing something more with my life. Upgrading my office PC required endless convincing of the management, so long rendering hours became routine.

In those long waits, my mind would wander. I’d imagine working for myself, building something of my own instead of rendering buildings designed by others.

Somewhere in that haze, the first version of the IndieCat showbox was born. Just a scrap of paper from the printing room and two pens from the stationery drawer.That’s all I had. But with those, I drew the first outline of what would one day become our box.

I had no idea then that those scribbles would be appreciated by so many pet parents, or that they’d help set a new standard for packaging at Pets of Paradise.

Indie dogs must be here, it’s their home as much as ours.

#SafeWithStrays

Illustrated a series for Tata AMC over a year ago for their internal communication handbook. It was one of those projects that needed comics to bring life into a very text-heavy guidebook.

Comics have a way of making even the most serious spaces more engaging, relatable, and easy to understand.
.
.
[ internal communications, Handbook, Illustrations ]

Nibble Nest’s hungry blue bird mascot, blissfully aathufying a cup of filter coffee

Meet the blue hungry bird!
The Nibble Nest Café’s lovable mascot was born over a year ago. This cheerful little character now greets you from every corner of the café.

[ Cafe, Chennai , Branding ]

A quick reset in Rishikesh was all that was needed to come back with more energy, a clearer mind and a momentum in full swing.
.
[ reset, Rishikesh, workcation ]

To all the humans owned by cats!
Happy International Cat Day!
.
.
[ cats, pet parents, international cat day ]

.pro-gallery-wix-wrapper {display: block !important;} .pro-gallery-wix-wrapper .gallery-item-container {opacity: 1 !important; display: block !important;}

Contact

Beyond the Spoken and Written.