From design studio to an online art store that specializes in vector artwork: The Story of Graphicurry
Oscar Wilde said, 'A work of art is the unique result of unique temperament.' And unique temperament often comes out from deep-rooted passion for particular genre of art, as in the case of Prasad Bhat, an engineering graduate who chose to start a design studio when IT jobs didn’t seem to strike a chord with him. Gradually the strong inclination towards design and artworks motivated him to launch his own venture - Graphicurry.
Evolution and offering
In its initial days, Graphicurry used to cater to all kinds of graphic designing and branding needs. However, recently the company had opened an online store - Graphicurry Art Store.
The Art Store is rooted from Bhat’s love for humor. “I started creating caricatures of my friends and favorites. These were loved so much by my viewers that, to my pleasant surprise, soon people wanted to purchase them,” said Bhat.
Currently, the store offers a wide range of caricatures, including of celebrities like Johnny Depp, Snoop Lion, and thematic caricatures inspired from movies such as Hangover, Godfather, Matrix with several others. The offered caricatures are result of several weeks of study on behavioral aspects, expressions and body language, which go as an input to the character cognition of each artwork. Each artwork is crafted from a scratch into an intricate vector illustration and is not just a hastily morphed image. The complete art range has been created and conceptualization by Bhatt and creation of the other merchandise are also copyright products by the store.
Traction so farLaunched in July 2013 - the store gets decent number of orders from all parts of India, though Bhatt didn’t disclose any figure about daily orders. “We’ve just completed our first month of being online and we feel encouraged in this domain already. The orders have been coming in steadily daily. However, we’re still learning and improvising ourselves,” added Bhatt.
Besides Bhat, Graphicurry is supported by his wife and partner Deepti Bhat, who takes care of major client communications and marketing initiative, and for managing business development and retail. The company also sells its offering via 7 offline stores across Bangalore, Mumbai, Noida and Delhi.
Future plan
This year the store sets out to expand its retail footprint to other cities and presently it is in talks with interested partners in Cochin and Pune to finalise its retail relationship. On the online front, Graphicurry aspires to grow stronger with range of products that it intends to launch in coming months. “A lot of our fans and patrons have been asking us to launch an apparel range. Although there are no plans in near future, the apparel range will also have its distinctive concept and art theme,” concluded Bhatt.