Hi, I’m Roshni.

I'm a graphic designer from Chennai, India, currently based in New York. I hold an MFA in Communications Design from Pratt Institute, where I also worked with the Office of International Affairs. Prior to that, I contributed to Ashvita’s, a cultural space in Chennai.

My work is grounded in a deep interest in materiality, texture, and the tactility of handmade objects and analog processes. These physical qualities often inform and shape my visual language and design approach.

Email me at roshni.kumaravel@gmail.com or find me on Instagram at @stuffysinuses.
Project Index
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02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
Is a Swedish Fish a Real Fish?
Kitchen Garden Zine
Bates Roman
OIA Flyers
In This Park We Are Free
Reality/Hyperreality
Excerpt: The Society of the Spectacle
01.Is a Swedish Fish a Real Fish?
Publication Design
99 x 152 mm, 112 pages
Inkjet print on Strathmore 300 Series Sketch

Every time we use symbols like words or images to represent objects or ideas, we lose some amount of information in that process. But what do we gain in this process? We constantly learn about the world we live in through representations of it. What information are we losing and what else are we gaining when we learn about real events through representations of them on social media and the internet?

Is a Swedish Fish a Real Fish?
is a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts (Communications Design) at Pratt Institute. Read the full thesis here.


02.A Non-Comprehensive Guide to Growing Your Own Food
Publication Design

4 page zine11.25ʺ x 16.5ʺ, folded down to 5.625ʺ x 8.25ʺ
Offset lithographic print on 30lb newsprint, edition of 100
Printed at Linco Printing

Growing your own food is an anarchic, anti-consumerist response to industrial food systems, environmental degradation, and capitalist overconsumption. This guide challenges the idea that food must come packaged, processed, and purchased. Instead, it reclaims the act of gardening as a form of resistance.

03.Bates Roman
Typeface Design

Bates Roman is a display font inspired by the numbers stamped by an old Bates Machine (No. 49). The numbers on the machine, in a scotch roman font, had a softness when printed out owing to the filled-in inktraps. These filled-in inktraps become a key characteristic of Bates Roman, giving the typeface a gentle fluidity.

04.OIA Flyers
Advertising Material

Select flyers, posters and social media posts designed as part of the Office of International Affairs at Pratt Institute.


05.In This Park We Are Free
Publication Design

4.5ʺ x 6.5ʺ, 44 pages
Laser print on 30lb newsprint

Digital spaces are saturated with narratives of personal expression, yet we fail to form authentic relationships through self-expression alone. Filmmaker Adam Curtis suggests that we are yearning for ‘enchanting’ mythologies that honour our individuality while simultaneously making us feel like we are part of something larger than ourselves.

This zine investigates the relationship between the individual and the community through their interactions with a shared space. The images used in this project were shot in Prospect Park, Brooklyn over the summer of 2024.


06.Where does reality end and hyperreality begin?
Publication Design

5.5ʺ x 8.5ʺ, 16 pages
Inkjet print on Strathmore 300 Series Sketch
11ʺ x 17ʺ insert, laser and riso print on  30lb newsprint and vellum

A compilation of research in preparation for my graduate thesis that explores the nature of representations, and how the media used to communicate a message interact with the message itself.
07.Exerpt from The Society of the Spectacle Publication Design

3.5ʺ x 4.8ʺ, 32 pages
Inkjet print on copy paper

In The Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord used the term ‘spectacle’ to describe a culture centred around passive consumption of media devoid of substance.  I documented instances of the ‘spectacle’ as I came across them in advertisements seen on social media. These images collectively show what ‘commodities’ were being sold to me during this period - some of these include opportunities to “play with identity, style and creativity,” information on whether I “pass the ‘pretty’ test,” methodologies to “meet the challenge of working with Gen Z,” and even copies of The Society of the Spectacle. I used these advertisements to illustrate exerpts from the text by Debord. The book is accordion folded so that the surface of the book is covered in instances of  ‘spectacle’, while the interior of the book, once unfolded, reveals the actual text.