Dancing with Design: Creating a logo and brand for a Kathak dancer

When Damini Bisht came to us needing a logo, her vision was an emotion.

A Delhi-based professional Kathak dancer, Ms. Damini is a teacher, performer, and choreographer – every aspect of her life is shaped by movement.

Like all artists, Ms. Damini had an eye for detail, and was on a quest for the perfect design, enlisting the help of GenAI tools with the hope of being understood.

Yet, for all of its uses and convenience, GenAI was unable to translate her ideas into something aesthetic, personalised and culture-rich. AI has yet to understand the myriad of emotions experienced by us, especially the kind inclined towards creative pursuits – making human involvement and insights all the more relevant.

That’s when Damini reached out to a friend and fellow dancer, Ms. Nayantara Parpia of Tridhara, for advice. A little context here: Ms. Nayantara is a Kathak artist for whom we crafted a new brand and website, and we were honoured when she recommended Tellable to Ms. Damini.

‘Pratham Umang’ (or “first joy”) is Damini’s brainchild, named for the awakening every dancer has when they move, not unlike a child learning to walk for the first time. “Art should be approached with joy,” says Damini, because rhythm is in all of us, we only need to gently draw it out.

Such was the beauty, the emotion, that we needed to communicate in Pratham Umang’s logo; after all, this would be the first thing prospective students would see, and feel inspired by.

So first, we gave the client our ears – we sat down together on a call, knowing we needed to ask the right questions and truly listen to understand.

What was her vision, what was the beat she was moving to? Little by little, the story came together. We took careful note of her requirements, and found that the perfect logo for the brand would be:

1) Joyful, and high energy

2) Simple, minimalistic

3) And a homage to Kathak as an art form

The concept? A design that would reflect the energy and sheer joy of being a dancer, while capturing the elegance and grace of the classical arts. We would be taking an abstract emotion and transforming it into something tangible, true to an artist’s sensibilities.

With an idea in place, it was our job to bring it to life, becoming the creative hand to our client’s mind. In that sense, a dancer and a designer have something in common – we let our hands do the talking. From graceful mudras to graphic design, every movement tells a story.

We took to the drawing board, quite literally putting thoughts to paper. In order to do justice to our client’s vision, we needed to explore a variety of designs, the iterative process almost like a dance being choreographed.

What flowed, what didn’t? Would the logotype be in Hindi or in English, and how would that affect the logo mark? How could we express Kathak without painting an overly-detailed picture?

Sometimes the answer is simple, like 5, 6, 7, 8.

Logo design

We focused on two key ideas for the iconography: simplicity, and movement. The logo mark could therefore be a figure in a classic Kathak pose, ready to whirl into beautiful formations in the blink of an eye. Using Ms. Damini herself as a reference, we explored different shapes and silhouettes, staying true to the art form. Now the design flowed!

Colour palette

Pratham Umang stood for joy and movement, rooted in tradition. Our colours needed to say the same, and so we explored warm, earthy tones that would feel approachable, yet elegant. Red came first, like the alta tinting a dancer’s hands. Yellow, for the joy or ‘umang’ of dance, and finally brown, like the earth graced by a dancer’s feet.

Typography

Half-Hindi, half-English? Fully English, or fully Hindi? We weighed our options, and found our answer in pursuit of balance. A type that echoed the curves of Hindi while being completely in English, allowing us to blend tradition with the modern. The icon and type were now transformed into a harmonious pair.

Bringing together the logo, type and colours gave us a brand design fitting for a classical dancer.

Simple? Check.

Joyful? Check.

True to the Kathak art form? Also check.

And our client? It was a joy of firsts, albeit in a completely different way.

Collaborating with artists – be it the performing arts or otherwise – is truly a unique joy. Working through every detail, every hex code of a colour until the final product is shaped into something that carries both the function of design and the beauty of the arts is our kind of storytelling.

Together, we can bring your artistic visions to life. Are you ready to dance?

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