Commission by India Art Fair & BMW India, 2023

In 2023, our Creative Director Sajid Wajid Shaikh was shortlisted alongside Aditi Aggarwal, Devika Sundar, and Rithika Pandey for the second edition of The Future is Born of Art Commission, presented by India Art Fair and BMW India. The theme, Forwardism, invited the artists to imagine bold, progressive futures through experimental art practices.

As part of the commission, the BMW X7 served as both canvas and platform, with the winning artist designing a car wrap envisioning what a leap into the future could look like. The project highlighted the potential of young Indian artists to push boundaries and define the values of tomorrow.

The shortlisted artists were selected by a distinguished jury, including Dr. Deepanjana Klein (Kiran Nadar Museum of Art), artist duo Thukral & Tagra, collector Shalini Passi, and Jaya Asokan (Director, India Art Fair).

For Sajid Wajid Shaikh, “the future is a dream.” The Mumbai-based artist, celebrated for his vibrant and “trippy” digital art, reimagines the BMW X7 as a canvas of psychedelic surrealism. His wrap design unfolds like a lucid dream, inviting viewers to suspend disbelief and step into a world shaped by the unconscious.

Working through a process of psychic automatism, where instinct overrides reason, Sajid channels imagery that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant. With a blend of humour, colour, and wit, he offers not just a vision of the future, but an emotional and psychological journey into what tomorrow might look like when seen through the lens of dreams.

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The Bank of New York Mellon commissioned our Creative Director Sajid Wajid Shaikh to create a body of work that captures the essence of everyday India—its color, vibrancy, and the unique spirit of its people.

The result was a series of six digital paintings portraying street vendors, who embody resilience, warmth, and joy in the midst of daily hustle. Each artwork celebrates the simple yet profound act of being present in the moment—whether it’s the chaiwala pouring tea, the flower seller arranging marigolds, or the fruit vendor balancing abundance on a cart.

By elevating these everyday scenes into vivid compositions, the series offers a portrait of India that is not only lively and diverse, but also deeply human. It reflects the beauty found in ordinary encounters and the cultural richness that thrives on the streets.

Occupying the delicate space between dreams and reality, Surrealism invites us into a world where the ordinary is transformed into the extraordinary. It is a movement that fuses rational vision with the untamed imagination of the unconscious, revealing truths that logic alone cannot contain.

This heady bed collection draws from that spirit—brimming with forms that are at once familiar and uncanny, playful yet profound. Each piece evokes the strangeness of dreams: unexpected juxtapositions, poetic absurdities, and fragments of memory reassembled into something startlingly new.

More than just furniture, these works act as portals into another state of mind. They challenge what it means to inhabit space, to rest, to dream—turning the bedroom into a stage for the subconscious. In their presence, beauty arises not from perfection but from surprise, from the thrilling collision of the expected and the impossible.

For the launch of Spotify Premium Mini in India, the idea was to highlight the flexibility of the new daily and weekly subscription plans. The campaign positioned Spotify Premium as something you could easily tailor to your lifestyle—whether for short-term use when friends are around, or longer access when family visits.

The visual storytelling captures everyday Indian scenarios in a lighthearted, relatable way:

• Daily Plan ₹7: Perfect for spontaneous moments, like when friends come over to hang out, dance, or share music together.

• Weekly Plan ₹25: Ideal for slightly longer stays, like when parents visit and want uninterrupted entertainment, music, or podcasts through the week.

The extended illustration set expands on this idea, showing diverse cultural contexts, moods, and daily activities where music naturally fits in: commuting, traveling, exercising, working, celebrating, and unwinding. Each artwork emphasizes how Spotify Premium becomes a seamless companion in every moment, no matter how big or small.

By using playful characters, bold colors, and dynamic compositions, the visuals reinforce the brand’s youthful energy and universality while staying rooted in the Indian context.

In the early 1930s, a young boy named Pheeko would eagerly wait for a traveling fakir to arrive in his village of Kotla Sultan Singh, trailing behind him and mimicking his chants. When his family later moved to Lahore, the cultural and cinematic hub of the time, Pheeko found himself humming melodies while working at a relative’s barber shop. His effortless singing caught the attention of customers—and his brother, who, despite their father’s resistance, arranged for him to train under the great Ustad Abdul Wahid Khan.

That little boy grew up to become Mohammed Rafi, the legendary voice of Indian cinema. Over his career, Rafi recorded nearly five thousand songs across an astonishing range of genres—romantic ballads, qawwalis, ghazals, rock and roll, and classical compositions—and in multiple languages, including Hindi, English, Arabic, Persian, Sinhalese, Creole, and Dutch.

Rafi’s silken voice and emotional depth won him countless admirers. The timeless romance of Chaudhvin ka Chand earned him his first Filmfare Award in 1960, followed by five more in the years ahead. In 1967, he was honored with the Padma Shri by the Government of India, and in 1977 he received the National Award for Kya Hua Tera Wada. Today, Rafi remains celebrated as the undisputed king of playback singing in India, a voice that continues to echo across generations.

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Born on this day in 1944, to a family steeped in music, Lachhu Maharaj (born Lakshmi Narayan Singh) went on to become one of the most celebrated tabla players of his generation. Trained by his father, Vasudev Maharaj, he displayed prodigious talent from an early age. At just eight years old, his playing so impressed the legendary tabla maestro Ahmed Jaan Thirakwa that he predicted a remarkable future for the young artist.

Lachhu Maharaj was revered for his innate sense of rhythm, a quality most powerfully expressed in his solo performances. While he shared the stage with nearly every great tabla player of his era, it was his solos that left the deepest mark—dynamic, unpredictable, and endlessly inventive.

The eminent vocalist Girija Devi, his frequent collaborator, once remarked: “He would play for hours without repeating himself—new gats, tukras, and parans flowed endlessly, leaving his audiences awestruck.”

Through his artistry, Lachhu Maharaj carved a legacy that continues to inspire tabla players and music lovers alike—remembered not only for his technical brilliance but for the joy and spontaneity he brought to every performance.

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Animal partnered with six artists to create six one-of-a-kind surfboards for adidas Originals, celebrating the launch of Pharrell Williams’ #PinkBeach collection in India. Each board became a vibrant canvas, blending art, design, and culture to capture the spirit of the collection in a bold, unconventional way.

I recently volunteered with Reality Gives for their initiative India Starts with I, taking a tour of Dharavi, one of the largest informal settlements in the world. The aim was to portray the area’s thriving small-scale industries in a positive light and to highlight how Reality Gives works as an NGO to empower local communities through education and employment opportunities.

Reality Gives is the sister organisation of Reality Tours & Travel, an ethical travel company founded in 2005 by Krishna Pujari and Chris Way with the mission of breaking stereotypes around slums and showcasing the resilience and talent of their residents. After conversations with Dharavi locals about their most pressing needs, a Community Centre was established in 2007 to provide English and computer classes. As the tours grew, so did their social impact, leading to the official launch of Reality Gives as an NGO in 2009.

From the very beginning, Reality Gives has focused on education—a priority identified directly by Dharavi’s residents. Its vision and mission were built around this community-led approach and strengthened through collaborations with established organisations. Non-profit Muktangan has supported the educational programs, while consultancy ATMA has provided expertise in organisational development, ensuring that every initiative meets the highest standards.

Through this experience, I witnessed not just the challenges of Dharavi, but also its energy, innovation, and humanity—a reminder that positive change begins with seeing communities beyond stereotypes.

Brick Gym, one of the leading fitness chains in the United States, collaborated with BBDO New York to commission us for a unique campaign. We were tasked with designing a series of fitness-themed Matryoshka dolls, each hand-crafted to embody the spirit of strength, discipline, and progression at the heart of the brand.

The campaign was met with rave reviews, praised for its originality and playful visual storytelling. When it concluded, our work was recognized with a Clio Award, a testament to the creativity and craft poured into the project.

Agency: BBDO New York

Client: BRICK

Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide: David Lubars

Chief Creative Officer, New York: Greg Hahn

Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Bianca Guimaraes

Senior Copywriter: Rodrigo Linhares

Senior Art Director: Florian Marquardt

Director of Integrated Production: David Rolfe

Executive Producer: Neely Lisk

Lead Integrated Producer: Courtney Fallow

Photographer: Billy Siegrist / Koji Yahagi

Physical Designer/3D Model: Jeian Jeong

Type Designer: Marcelo Righini

Digital Production Company: Visorama Diversões Eletrônicas

Account Manager: Samanta Martins

Stop Motion Artist: Luciano do Amaral

2D Digital Animator: José Bessa

3D Modeling Artist: Elisa Branco

Illustrator: Sajid wajid shaikh

fitnestingdoll.com

Relevance fuels creativity. This fall–winter, adidas Originals brings back the iconic Gazelle, a sneaker that has stood the test of time through constant reinvention. The Gazelle embodies a key truth: creativity rarely happens in isolation—it borrows, adapts, and transforms what came before.

Re-Appropriation Art

Re-appropriation is the act of taking an existing visual language—an artwork, an image, or even an entire cultural moment—and reimagining it in a new context. Often mistaken for imitation, re-appropriation is about shifting purpose: reshaping the old to create something fresh, relevant, and contemporary.

The Campaign

For the Gazelle, we brought together a group of young cultural connoisseurs and styled them in iconic looks from the 1960s through the 2000s—each paired with the timeless Gazelle sneaker. These photographs then became the raw material for a second layer of creation: five artists in each city (Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore) re-appropriated the images, using their own mediums—digital, mixed-media, or hand-rendered—to reinterpret them.

The final artworks, blending heritage with modernity, were showcased at adidas Originals flagship stores across India, marking the Gazelle’s return as not just a sneaker, but a canvas for cultural reinvention.

Creative Director : Kunel Gaur

Agency : Animal

We were commissioned to illustrate a set of 24 stickers for use across Google products, including their then-new messaging app, Google Allo.

The assigned theme was Prem Pyare—a poet-lover, a man of many moods, who expresses his emotions in a uniquely charming andaaz. Playful, heartfelt, and instantly relatable, the character brought humor and warmth to digital conversations.

The set quickly became a hit, ranking among the global top 5 most-used sticker packs (Google Statistics).

Art Direction: Sanket Avlani (A Good Feeling)
Animation: Rajeev Maurya (Kreative Garage)