Zeenat Kulavoor (b. 1989) is a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in Mumbai, India. Her practice spans typography, book design, printmaking,
and spatial interventions — with a deep interest in tactility, material play, and
the emotional weight of language and form.
She is the Design Director of Bombay Duck Designs, a boutique design studio that has been actively shaping visual culture for over a decade. At the studio, Zeenat leads projects across branding, publication design, murals, packaging, stage design, installations, and digital platforms for a wide
spectrum of clients — from multinational companies and cultural institutions to independent artists and musicians. She has been an integral part of the conceptualisation, design, and production of a long-running series of self-
published books and zines that celebrate and archive the nuances of everyday Indian visual culture.
In her personal work, Zeenat explores multilingual Indian scripts, with a particular fascination for Urdu lettering and calligraphy. Combining wit, social
observation, and print experimentation, she uses type as a tool to recontextualise and reinsert script into the urban environment — reviving its presence in both public and private spaces.
Her work has been presented in group exhibitions including The Urdu Exhibit
by Design Fabric, India (2017); WORD at Kult Gallery, Singapore (2018); Urdu
Culture Now by Godrej India Culture Lab, India (2018); POP Lune by Lune,
India (2024); and Protect Your Spirit by NorBlack NorWhite, India (2024). She
co-curated Everyday India (2023), a research-based illustrated
documentation of multiplicity and multiculturalism in the Indian graphic art
and design landscape. She is also featured in Fire In The Belly, a posterzine
by India Art Fair. Zeenat regularly collaborates on zine and publication
projects that examine how design intersects with language, memory, and
identity.
This interview with the sibling duo behind Bombay Duck Designs explores their omnivorous curiosity for the diversity of visual cultures in India and suggests that an embrace of what may, on the surface, seem chaotic reveals opportunities for understanding and connection. Paul Galloway: An aspect of your work that intrigues me is that it is steeped…
