Roshni Kumaravel

(she/her) is a graphic designer and illustrator specialising in publication design and print production.

Roshni graduated from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn in 2025 and is currently at the Center for Book Arts in New York.

Roshni’s practice is informed by an interest in analog image-making processes and material exploration.

Roshni is currently based in New York, and can be contacted by email at roshni.kumaravel@gmail.com

01.

Is a Swedish Fish a Real Fish?

Publication, Photographs, Writing
99 x 152 mm, 112 pages
Inkjet print on Strathmore 300 Series Sketch

2024–2025

In his 1981 essay Simulacra and Simulation, French theorist Jean Baudrillard suggested that reality had been replaced entirely by signs and symbols, and that the idea of ‘real life’ was a simulated construct. He described contemporary society as ‘hyperreal,’ and that hyperreality was more real than the idea of reality. He described a process through which reality slowly distances itself from its original meaning, eventually to be replaced by a simulacrum. Simulacra means ‘likeness’ or ‘semblance’ in Latin. In replacing reality with a simulated version of reality, what do we lose and what do we gain?

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