Brooklyn, NY | Jaipur, IN
varunmundra3@gmail.com

Varun Mundra is an art director & visual designer based in Brooklyn, NY.

RE-REWRITING HISTORY: Exploration of an AI-manipulated reality

Image manipulation is an act that has now existed for more than a century in various forms-- airbrushing photo negatives, double exposure, and Photoshop. Up until now, they have all been acquired skills that needed manual hours put into its maintenance. What does it mean when you can now achieve the same results at the click of a button? With AI, you can change backgrounds, remove people, and recreate faces as easily as pressing a button on your smartphone. This project examines the history of this skill and and recontextualizes it to question this practice, the need for the technology, and ponder the reality of this new world.

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Project 1

The Inn of The Five Graces

The Inn of The Five Graces is an exquisite hotel in the heart of Santa Fe that needed a complete brand refresh and a new direction for social. I created a new visual identity that captures the essence of the property, as well as a social playbook, and print assets. Working with Studio Symphony, we also directed a photoshoot of the property that brought new life to the hotel.

In collaboration with: Ryan Knowles, Maud Deitch, Puxan Photo
Field: Branding, Strategy

Project 2

Mellow Giraffe

Mellow Giraffe is a CBD wellness brand that required help expanding their visual identity. I worked on creating their packaging and crafted the product consumer experience for their brand.

The packaging mimics the pattern of the giraffe, and the messaging welcomes all wellness consumers -- novice and experts alike, to this new journey.

P.S. A group of giraffes is called a journey!

In collaboration with: Ryan Knowles
Field: Branding, Packaging

Project 3

PRINT STUFF

A collection of zines and tiny publications designed through risograph and other media, exploring the boundaries of independant publishing and book making.

The collection includes:
A riso zine based on Empty and Full plates of food
A tiny book of sunsets and patterns
A riso poster of a Nuclear plant
A riso zine of collected receipts of my favorite meals and recipes
A riso zine of Hamlet
A book documenting coping habits of my classmates in March 2020

Field: Publishing, Editorial
Where: Pratt Institute

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Project 4

Studio Symphony

Symphony is a branding and production studio based in NYC. I was asked to expand their visual identity, and create a brand book that reflects their ethos -- bringing harmony to brand building.

In collaboration with: Ryan Knowles
Field: Branding

Project 5

World of Coupe

Coupe is a sparkling wine brand based out of France. To create the world of Coupe, I looked into French New Wave cinema to base the look for the brand. It combines old elegance and glamour with modern, contemporary design to form the world of Coupe.

In collaboration with: Ryan Knowles
Field: Branding

Project 6

Prattonia 2021

Art directed, and designed a 208-page book for Pratt Institute’s Class of 2021. The book is designed to stand as a relic that encapsulates the students’ final year at Pratt during the pandemic, offering moments of reflection, nostalgia, and perseverance. The book features over 1200 student portraits mimicking screens of interaction, along with interviews shining light on student voices.

In collaboration with: MaKara Blake, Jessica Lee
Support from: Michael Kelly, Duncan Hamilton
Field: Editorial

Link: Full Prattonia 2021 Book

Project 7

Made in India

Made in India is a visual art book designed as an ode to the Indian culture and its design. It examines various ephemera and understands their cultural significance and design value. My examination of my culture was deeply rooted in research, collection, and abstraction, and I looked into film and cinema, print ads, local signage, design objects.

The pages are designed as informative landscapes of visual storytelling that come together to form a book. I extracted symbols, historical contexts, meanings & translations for several objects of the culture to provide a richer examination.

The book is an homage to the vibrancy and visual identity of the culture through an on-going archival, and abstraction of the elements- all of which resulted in an aesthetic that is very tactile, energetic, and abstracted in itself.

Field: Editorial, Visual Storytelling
Where: Pratt Institute

Project 8

PS6 Center for Film + Television

A new visual identity and deliverables designed by me pitched to PS6 in Newburgh, NY. The proposed branding direction brings energy, creativity, and innovation to the building.

Where: Design Corps, Pratt Institute
Field: Branding

Say hi!

varunmundra3@gmail.com