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.

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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.

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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

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

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New Series • Life in Basic Shapes returns!
Edition 02: Silly Indian Faces 2/25
BOILING BABU

Work took me around India since Jan 2026 and I observed people and met incredible souls from Srinagar to Chennai :) Overwhelmed by their energy, I poured my feelings into my work.

The funny, unintentional expressions you notice for a second and remember for much longer?
This series is just that.

30 days, 25 faces.
Keeping it simple. Keeping it a little silly.

[Small 🎁treat for you, limited time] Purrkins is our black cat and range of our cat meals. He has found a way to identify healthy meats and he loves sharing his discoveries with his cat friends.

Purrkins goes on a series of adventures to source the best of them, and this time, it landed him in a bit of trouble for sneaking into a chicken coop in Namakkal.

—
We at Pets of Paradise have been working on this healthy formulation and packaging for a while, and we’re incredibly excited about how it has turned out.

You all have been there all along supporting me and my team in the process. As a token of thank-you, I want your cats to try out Purrkins and tell us what they think :)
Code: Try20 for 20% off on the order value.

Visit our store and don’t forget to use the coupon code!

New Series • Life in Basic Shapes returns!
Edition 02: Silly Indian Faces 1/25
RUMOUR RAO, says 👋

Work took me around India since Jan 2026 and I observed people and met incredible souls from Srinagar to Chennai :) Overwhelmed by their energy, I poured my feelings into my work.

The funny, unintentional expressions you notice for a second and remember for much longer?
This series is just that.

30 days, 25 faces.
Keeping it simple. Keeping it a little silly.

I think I missed my annual trip to the magnificent Meenakshi Temple in Madurai last year.
The drive to Madurai usually begins early in the morning.
I reach town by afternoon, check into a hotel close to the temple, and keep everything within walking distance. My visits there are never long, usually no more than two days.
I should go again once summer has passed.

Back to my sunlit studio after a month-long India tour for Life in Basic Shapes.
It was a beautiful month. Everything was thoughtfully planned and smoothly executed, and I got to meet so many wonderful new people along the way.

Back to base also means one thing, there’s more exciting stuff in the works. But before I tell you about that, here’s a little photo recap from the journey.

A Kashmiri boy casually walking his pashmina goat through Betab Valley in Pahalgam.

I don’t know what was more impressive..the shawl, the sales pitch, or the fact that I briefly believed I needed pashmina for Chennai.
Travel has a funny way of doing that to you. You step into a new place, meet people who know exactly how to tell a story around what they sell, and for a moment, their certainty becomes your reality too.

Old sketch of the Amer Stepwell in Jaipur. This trip was extra special, as I bumped into my Surat friends @thetapiproject at the same event I was sent to cover. The Jaipur Lit Fest. I was sent there by Samsung to review their newly launched tablets.
Post the event, we stayed back for a few days and moved around the city. We spent some time at the stepwell before heading back for dinner, where @bijunambiar97 and I feasted on the mutton laal maas at MM Khan.
Absolutely worth it, even if our backsides were on fire the next morning 😅

ADJUST PLEASE | Tote Bag
I’d been waiting on these samples for a while, so it feels really nice to finally have them here.
I got a few made for myself, and a few for people who wanted to carry a piece of my work with them too.

Planning to make a small limited batch available around mid-April.

I’ve been using mine for coffee shop days, visits to friends’ places, and general running around. It’s big enough to carry my whole setup, which basically makes it my portable dookhan.

Some essentials that I have started carrying with me where ever I go.
Minister white shirt, madras watch company and a cat stuck in a hanger lapel pin, this combo has traveled with me everywhere I went this month.

When I was young, every holiday meant going to my grandparents’ house in Coonoor. Their house was in Bandishola, on a hill that almost touched the sky.
We travelled by the Blue Mountain Express from Chennai at night. By morning, we reached Mettupalayam, ready to take on the mountains.
On the way, we stopped at Burliar for tea. I didn’t drink tea back then, but it always smelled delicious.

The car ride up was full of twists and turns. Some people felt dizzy, so we carried lemons. I wasn’t sure if they worked, but we sucked on them anyway!
There was no internet, and our phones were simple button phones, hardly used for entertainment. So it was just us and the mountains.
We looked out of the window and guessed tree names. I used to know so many!
The air became cooler as we went higher, and everything looked green and fresh. By the time we reached my grandparents’ house, I was all charged up for the usual routine there.
It was a simple, happy ritual that I looked forward to every holiday.

Eid Mubarak… now please don’t touch my plate.
[EidMubarak, EidAlFitr2026, Eid2026, EidMubarak2026, HappyEid, EidVibes, EidCelebration, PawsAndPurrs, PetLovers]

Like a crowded bus that keeps moving through sheer collective weight and shared direction, a team aligned by one purpose finds its way forward, no matter the bumps along the way.

I’ve seen wedding baraats before, and even experienced one too, but the one I attended last week felt less like a wedding procession and more like the whole city had poured onto the street.

The scale of it was unbelievable. Standing by the side, I watched the dhols shake everything nearby, money flying through the air, and the poor street dogs at the corner looking utterly confused, as if they were trying to make sense of human behaviour.

In Surat, celebration often feels tied to being seen. There is a certain pride in scale, glamour, and making sure the world notices. So much of what people do comes from how society may view them, and how they wish to be remembered within it.

Having travelled here often, I know there is another, quieter side to the city too. But every now and then, I must admit, I enjoy being part of the glamour 😬

A quick sketch on the flight back to Chennai.

My three days at Nirma University felt like something I wished for this year and I’m glad it happened.

My mornings there began earlier than everyone else’s. Before the sessions started, I would carry my laptop and walk from the VIP guest house where I was staying to the K Canteen across the campus. It was a long, peaceful walk, and at 8 in the morning the campus was silent.
I would sit down at an outdoor table, order a sandwich and a cup of tea, and open my iPad to work on the packaging design for our new cat meals.

The tea barely went down my throat but it kept me company while I tried to finish a little work before the day began.

I had about forty-five minutes every morning. Just enough time to finish a few things, eat breakfast and clear my head before heading to the workshop sessions.

On the last day, I discovered that guests actually had access to the main mess where the tea was much better. I couldn’t help but laugh a little. Three days of struggling with the canteen tea… when the good one was waiting just around the corner!

The auto ride back from the station was quite something. Our driver had one eye on the road and the other firmly on the match. Somehow, in the middle of all that excitement, he still managed to follow every traffic rule… while giving us running commentary from the semi-finals.

At one traffic light, I noticed a small crowd gathered on the side of the road, all glued to a phone watching the last few balls. Even the traffic police had joined in. For a brief moment, no one seemed too concerned about who crossed on red.

Yesterday, on my train ride from Vadodara to Surat, the usual pushing and shoving was mysteriously missing.

For an hour and a half journey, the entire coach was glued to their phones, quietly tracking the match.

I don’t really follow cricket, but thanks to the running commentary from people around me, I got constant updates.
By the end of it, I had unwillingly watched the last few balls too.

Happy Holi everyone!
I somehow managed to escape the colourful powders this year… but I still got to enjoy the festival by illustrating this scene.

Illustration process | Children’s Book | KVKK

A page from my first Tamil book illustration project. Though I haven’t collaborated with many publications, this is truly my first book that’s to come to life.
The moment I read the script, I could vividly imagine the dynamic visuals I wanted to create for this story. Saying it’s action-packed would be an understatement, can you tell?

The publishers( @agan_adhigaram )were already familiar with my work, and they were convinced that I was the right person for this project.
This trust allowed me the creative freedom to bring the story to life in my own unique way:)

Here’s a sneak peek at one of my favorite page, which also happens to be the book’s cover.
It captures a lively scene where Kumudha, is chasing a chick through a bustling flower market, toppling a flower vendor’s stall and causing a delightful commotion.

Enjoy the process from a rough sketch to a fully rendered artwork,it’s been a truly rewarding experience.

Cat zoomies are honestly a supernatural event.🌀 I created a comic strip around it (Swipe)

Every cat parent knows this phase..
One minute they’re a soft, civilized baby and the next they’ve unlocked chaos mode - sprinting across furniture, attacking invisible enemies with full creative commitment. And just when you’re questioning reality, they collapse in the middle of the mess… asleep like nothing ever happened.
Do you know what I am saying?

Two incredible days at UID NCR!
A few days ago, I was invited to the UID NCR campus at GD Goenka to conduct a two-day masterclass for the Visual Communication and Animation students of Semester 4 and Semester 6.

I was honestly very nervous at first, addressing 45 students over two full days felt like a big responsibility. For those who know me well even addressing 2 people feels like a crowd to me.

I had planned the structure weeks in advance, but once the session began, the plan slowly evolved and for the better.

More details on everything we explored in the next post.

I genuinely enjoy breaking my own characters down and redrawing them just to see what changes.
Sometimes it’s not about the pose or expression, it’s about testing different line weights, pushing certain contours, softening others, and seeing how that affects the energy. What do you think?

I’ve always relied on solid, darker outlines to define my work, especially when the composition is busy and packed with detail.
It’s never really occurred to me to try and draw without them.
I feel it makes the illustration softer what do you think?

The Sunlit Studio is finally complete and everything is properly functional now.
We built this space on an existing terrace.
We kept it as open as we could, so it gets plenty of natural light through the day.
The lean-to terracotta roof does its job by keeping the studio cool even on a hot midday.
But the studio really shines during golden hour! The west sun pours in and throws warm, golden rays across the room.
We kept the furniture black to let the yellow flooring and the terracotta tiles above stand out And the white wall stays clean on purpose, because after working hours it doubles up as our home theatre screen.

Who needs work when you can have random breaks? 😀

If a mascot can make you smile before the first bite, it’s job half done but honestly this post is about the yummy bites I munched on while bringing this guy to life. 😀

Commute summary:
distance was not maintained.

Tailgated in traffic. Quills responded automatically. 🦔🚑

SERIES - Animals Stuck in Traffic
6/12

Morning commute update:
visibility compromised.

Apologies, my horn is my blind spot. 🦏

SERIES - Animal Stuck in Traffic
5/12

Sorry I’m late! My antlers got tangled in the city’s cables 🏍️

🔗 Link to the Substack in bio.
I have explained the Mentorship program in detail here. ✏️

In case you’re facing problem accessing it, DM me and I will help you through :)

#mentorshipprogram

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Beyond the Spoken and Written.