What Goes Behind Creative Storytelling

After working with Achint Thakkar, Vibhav collaborated with Anuv on two more artworks, plus he also recently worked with Tejas for his new album “Outlast”, creating four pieces in total. Now, he is keen to take his creative venture, Studio Sideline, forward.

It all started with the love of reading. When he was growing up, his favourite books were sci-fi and fantasy stories, and he always loved the cover illustrations that came with them. He became increasingly fascinated by the storytelling by these images over the years, and it soon turned into a full-fledged career path.

He also found music extremely compelling, and in college, he began to make artworks inspired by music. These caught the eye of some people in the indie arts community, and it eventually led him to make posters for Sofar Sounds.

There has been no looking back ever since. He has been working on a lot of projects with Converse, Kulture Shop, and Netflix—just to name a few. He has even designed cover artworks for some of Audible’s original stories. His collaboration with Converse as part of their Peace campaign, where he was one of the 9 artists selected from around the world.

As he continued to achieve his artistic dreams, Studio Sideline was born. Four storytellers combine their creativity and skills to bring the kind of stories they always wanted to tell but never had the manpower to pull off. ‘Our vision is to tell stories that have heart, and to execute them at the highest quality,’ says Vibhav.

What inspired the illustrators to start this company was the large number of people who are returning to illustration as a means of self-expression and storytelling. A range of exciting possibilities has been added to illustration by the digital medium, constantly blurring of lines between illustration, animation, fine art, installation art etc.

In fact, movie posters, album covers, and books have been using more illustrated art. 2D animated films are popular once again, as they represent an appreciation for hand-drawn artwork.

The secret recipe beyond all this is establishing a successful client-designer relationship. Vibhav’s solution — contracts. Having an idea of the kind of work you do and the way you do it helps to set boundaries for your clients so that everyone knows what to expect.

Setting terms, boundaries, and commercials, preferably in the form of a contract, he recommends that goes a long way.

Vibhav is still building up his portfolio with unique explorations of storytelling. When asked about what he wants to work on next, he answered, ‘I would love to work on anything that’s narrative-based, primarily book cover illustrations and zines.’