The doodle is going places. It has now become a means to communicate a social cause
Alicia Souza's doodles, wedding invite . (Photo: DC)
Chennai: Notebooks that speak out your soul, bookmarks with your favourite fictional character, phone cases with your caricature, welcome to the world of personalised doodles. Once upon a time, the doodle was a way to while away time when classes were boring or meetings droned on, but now, doodles have become a way of spreading word on a cause or proclaiming allegiance to a particular super hero. The doodle has gone personal.
Visual artist S Sriirama Santhosh and his friend Niran Chander run an outfit called Doodle Monk, which creates personalised doodles and also other themed artwork. Sriirama started doodling quite by chance, but was surprised by its popularity. “I began doodling when my mum was diagnosed with cancer. I devised dietary and health advisories in the form of doodles, which impressed my mother.
Today, I doodle about issues and events. Doodles help raise awareness and express myself artistically,” says Sriirama, who also does personalised doodles and customised bookmarks that are quite popular among students.
Niran says that their doodles are gaining popularity as people are increasingly looking out for personalised gifts for their friends. “People don’t like serious art much these days. They want something that is fun and colourful, yet close to their hearts, and can be gifted to friends. They want to express themselves and be unique,” he explains.
Alicia Souza, a popular illustrator who’s known for her cutesy characters and colourful scribbles, says that most people love doodles that are a reflection of their personas. “I did a series of personalised products, including notebooks. The recent theme that I had worked on was ‘What Teachers Say’. So, no matter which school you went to, the teachers would always make statements like ‘Is this a classroom or a fish market?’ Many couples also like to have customized doodles on their wedding invites or doodle magnets as return gifts,” says Alicia whose Facebook page, Doodleodrama, is quite a hit.
Saravanan, the business manager at MyCopie Designs, which personalises merchandise, says that students like to have a caricature of themselves on their notebooks to up the ‘cool’ quotient. “Most of our young customers choose either a caricature of themselves or even a group of their friends. They want to make a style statement and add some fun and excitement to college life,” he says.
( Source : dc correspondent )
Next Story
