Multidisciplinary designer and creative entrepreneur Anant Ahuja, also known by his distinctive Instagram username ‘typethug,’ is a graduate of The Whanganui School of Design, New Zealand. With an unorthodox style, (he certainly isn’t one for convention and rules) he has worked on projects for famous brands such as Airbnb, Adidas, Google, Uber and Snapchat to name a few.
In October 2014, at the age of just 23, Ahuja founded Inch Work, and grew it into one of the leading design firms in the country. In 2017, he co-founded a design centric platform called Design Fabric. That was just the beginning for creative like him, who is adept at not just design, but curation, brand strategy, and identity design.
Today he is the Design Director at Bakheda, a ‘brand accelerator’ with a team of award-winning creatives, and is also the co-founder of The Irregulars Art Fair, one of India’s fastest growing annual art events.
Here’s what we learned about Anant Ahuja when we decided to go beyond his incredible body of work and design inclinations, to see what really makes a trendsetter like him tick:
What television series are you currently watching?
I’m hooked onto Good Girls and Chernobyl at the moment.
A designer who inspires you?
If I were to name just one I’d say Eike König from Berlin. His work is so radical that it’s defined a genre it itself. I’ve literally been following his and his studio’s work since I was at design school. His sense of humour mixed with his aesthetics is a deadly combination.
An Instagram account that you would recommend?
Wasted Rita (@wastedrita)
The one thing in your studio that you absolutely cannot function without?
Right now it’s the air conditioner, but generally it’s the 2 seater Ikea couch. I love lying down on it and keeping my legs on the table and working.
If you were not a designer, what do you think you would have been?
I’d probably be in finance, working as an analyst at one of the top tier financial institutions, stealing from them slowly and setting up a VC fund. Why? I feel the next wave of economy lies in making social impact via businesses.
Tell us about a project that you are currently working on.
We’re working on rebranding one of India’s leading entertainment and ticketing platforms. It’s been in the works for the past 4 months and we’re on the verge of releasing it.
It’s been super challenging considering there’s a merger involved, as now there are more stakeholders than before. Setting up a new strategy and coming up with a fresh visual aesthetic for a brand that’s already engraved in people’s conscience is a very demanding job. On top of that we’re gearing up for the next edition of The Irregulars Art Fair too, so it’s going to be fun year ahead.
What are you looking forward to the most this year?
I’m super pumped about The Irregulars Art Fair 2020 edition. We’ve already kickstarted the planning and panned out some curatorial themes for it. The amount of love that people have shown for this property has definitely gotten us to a place where we can’t let them down, so hoping for it to be bigger and better in its third edition.
A lesson/incident/words of wisdom from a mentor that you live by even today?
There are so many of them! I feel everything that goes wrong in your life is a teachable moment for you to take cues from and I have had so many of them. They said one thing, “make moves, make mistakes, fail miserably, hit rock bottom, get up, keep repeating it till the time you succeed. You’re are solely responsible for your own actions, nobody’s going to do it for you.” I’ve literally applied this to every aspect of my life, not just professionally but personally too.
If you had to summarise your design ethos in not more than 2 sentences, what would it be?
Phresh & Klean. I always try and steer away from traditional choices when it comes to identity design, I like a little bit of splash of colour and bold type which is kind of not what people go for nowadays.
Tell us about 3 architectural/design creations (not your own) that you admire most.
This is a very tough one if I have to limit it to three:
Simpu Singh: A character developed by Vaibhav Kumaresh for Channel V, almost 2 decades ago. Around late 90’s Channel V was doing some amazing brand idents and introducing Simpoo was the best thing to have happened to them. The character tickled its viewers’ bones for the next decade without fail. Indigenously Indian and at the same time so well crafted as a character, it was a high point for India’s animation industry.
Movie Titles for Anatomy of A Murder: While study type in motion at school, I chanced upon this masterpiece by Saul Bass. He is anyway one of the most celebrated graphic designers of all times, but the movies titles he did for Anatomy of A Muder were a game changer. For a movie made in 1959, it is so ahead of its time that it hurts. Saul Bass literalised the film title by presenting each member of the crew next to disassembled body parts. He first starts by showing the entire body presenting the director Otto Preminger. Then each piece of the body is disassembled and presented like it is part of a puzzle. It is sooooo gooood.
The Public Theater : Identity and Posters designed by Paula Scher from Pentagram. This identity system is one of those which designers use as a reference for their clients to make bold choices. It’s sooo bad that it’s soo good. The usage of colours, mono coloured imagery paired with bold typefaces. it’s delicious and again so ahead of its time.
Your next travel destination and why you would like to go there?
I’m not fussed as traveller, if the weather’s nice I’m willing to tag along. So far I’m trying to wrap up most of Southeast Asia (mostly because it’s cheap and the food is to die for). But I’m definitely doing a US trip (East to West Coast) before the end of this year. It’s always been a theatrical dream of mine to drive from New York to Las Vegas.
