Words by: Zeenat Kulavoor
After spending her life in Bombay, Zeenat Kulavoor can’t think of anywhere else to call home. And as a graphic designer and typographer, the enduring influence of Zeenat’s home city is immediately visible in what she does. As she explains: “We’re constantly observing the city and the way it’s changed over the last 20 to 30 years. We’ve seen it evolve and all of this comes out in our work.” Reflecting Bombay’s melting pot of cultures, Zeenat’s type work uses multiple Indian scripts including Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati and Urdu (her speciality).
Zeenat is also creative director of Bombay Duck Designs – one of India’s earliest specialised design studios – set up by her brother Sameer Kulavoor in 2008. She joined the studio as a university graduate, beautifully complementing Sameer’s illustration style with her own extensive knowledge of design and typography.
We were fortunate enough to cross paths with Zeenat when seeking Bombay artists for a very special brief: to create first-class prints for gifting to Dishoom-wallas who had been with us for 10 years or more. In each print Zeenat created for us, there are nuances of the city, its people and the Irani cafés that we all know and love. So along the way, we couldn’t miss asking Zeenat for her top recommendations of things to see and do (and eat) in her beloved Bombay in 24 hours. Kindly read on to discover them.
