Sthuthi Ramesh rebrands Jhaveri Contemporary with the utmost consideration for context and detail

After a decade of use, Mumbai-based contemporary gallery Jhaveri Contemporary decided it was time for a fresh face; turning to London-based designer Sthuthi Ramesh for a new identity. Expertly achieving Jhaveri Contemporary’s artistic vision, the result of over a year’s work is a delicately crafted identity system that is both striking and supportive – something Ramesh accomplished through an intimate understanding of Jhaveri Contemporary’s role and the utmost consideration for typographic detail. “The brief was to create a brand that encapsulates young modern India,” explains Ramesh, “and nuances of the midcentury/post-independence design aesthetics.” Intelligently utilising Karel Martens’ and Jungmyung Lee’s Pirelli typeface as the wordmark, Ramesh prospered in the typeface’s innate charm and imperfection to give character to the gallery itself. As a result, Pirelli and Ramesh’s application leads the audience to see Jhaveri Contemporary as the gallery it is – “confident, smart and simple,” as well as capturing the amiable “nuances from the gallery’s interiors,” Ramesh remarks. The purposeful spacing of the wordmark is also indicative of the brand’s supportive intentions; in itself allowing space to highlight the work it advocates, whilst simultaneously creating a system for infinite flexibility to adapt to application and layout. Hoping to craft a custom typeface, however finding herself limited by time and budgeting constraints, Ramesh recalls her obsession with the hand-rendered typography of Indian designer Prof Sudhakar Nadkarni found on a milk kiosk that led her down this specific typographic path. “Further research led to more post-independence typefaces in India,” she adds, “most of the typefaces were modern sans serif but had these irregular hand-drawn features to all of them.” In finding her saving grace amongst the “nice irregularities, yet monoline structure” of Pirelli, Ramesh explains the typeface’s timelessness is achieved through “the distinctive motif of unusual high-waisted capitals, with touches of wabi-sabi.”