Sujata Keshavan

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sujata Keshavan

• Sujata as a schoolgirl was engaged in a 3-days-a-week Bangalore Art Club, where she had to draw and paint.

• Sujata Keshavan is the first Indian woman to earn a master’s degree in the field of graphic design from a foreign university.

• Her entire family was engaged in creative skills and all were avid readers. She grew up looking at her father moulding all the waste materials into usage articles. He would convert a baby cot into a sofa. Her mother had an extensive knowledge about horticulture. She used to paint and write.

• Her ancestral bungalow was featured as a piece of architecture in Architecture Digest India. It is named ‘Tanquary’ and Sujata visits it to refresh her mind.

  

• She is the only Indian graphic designer who has twice received the honour of Graphic Designer of the Year at the All India Advertising and Marketing (A & M) awards.

• Sujata Keshavan co-founded a ‘brand designing’ firm, Ray+Keshavan, along with Ram Ray in 1989. This firm worked for advertising and branding popular companies like Reliance, Tata, Dr Reddy’s, Mckinsey & Company, etc.

• Ray+Keshavan was sold to the WPP Group in 2014. It is a British multi-industrial company that stood as the world’s largest advertising company in 2019.

• She sold Ray+Keshavan at the peak of its success as it became a monotonous job for her, and she couldn’t challenge her creative skills. To create something from scratch, she founded a fashion luxury brand, ‘Varana,’ with Ravi Prasad, former Chairman of Himalayan Drug Company, in 2017.

  

• Sujata started ‘Varana’ to save and promote Indian handcrafting and artisanal skills.

  

• When asked about her alternate career option in an interview,  she said that had she not become a designer, she would be a driver to famous personalities like Bill Gates, where she would have access to good cars and interesting stories.

• In remembrance of her parents, Sujata donated 5 million to the National Institute of Design (NID) in 2017 to annually distribute the ‘Shanta Keshavan and N. Keshavan Prize’ in the categories of communication, industrial, and textile & apparel design.

• The idea and name of her fashion brand ‘Varana’ emerged from Sujata’s visit to Varanasi, where, while looking at the confluence of the Varuna and Asi rivers (tributaries of Ganga), she made up her mind to start this venture.

  

• Sujata Keshavan has been a host speaker at many international conferences such as International Design Center in Japan and Nagoya and Design Indaba in South Africa.

  

• She was a jury member at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2009 and ReBrand 100 at the Rhode Island School of Design. She has been a judge at many other international design award ceremonies.

• Sujata is a member of the Governing Council at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

• She is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Design & Innovation.

• Sujata Keshavan once started a culture club in Bangalore named ‘Design Friday’ to help aspiring designers and artists expand their knowledge in the field of visual arts through the exchange of thoughts and experiences.

• Sujata Keshavan is the one to give the Indian brand MTR an international look. She is behind giving the Himalayan brand a modern look.