We don’t deliver food.

Then what is Tiffinbox?

Tiffinbox is an illustration and a communication design studio based out of New Delhi and run by two socially-conscious people, who apart from designing for their clients are also frequently motivated to tell stories: of their lives, of their travels and sometimes even fiction.

Sriparna Ghosh and Rohit Chaudhary, alumni of National Institute of Fashion Technology (New Delhi), took up entrepreneurial roles straight out of college and founded Tiffinbox in early 2008. With a cumulative experience of over 24 years in the field of communication design, Tiffinbox is beginning to seek a shift in its focus by aligning itself with organisations in the development sector – be it educational, environmental or societal – in an endeavour to contribute to the world at large and aspire for far-reaching effects in helping address challenges that are of global nature.

When we started our little studio in 2008, we proudly flaunted this tagline on our visiting cards. Today, we are not so sure. We still love alliterations though!

What services do you provide?

We like to tackle the design problems from a logical, honest and aesthetic point of view. We also believe in the ethical treatment of all, whether they are our clients, our partners, our colleagues, animals or nature. We like to slot our services under the larger categories of Identity (logo and the associated paraphernalia), Print (brochures, reports, diaries, posters, exhibitions, and events), Digital (websites and illustrated videos), and Illustrations.

How do you approach your work?

Our approach is usually very organic. We do not always follow the same process though the starting point is always the same: a carefully crafted and considered project brief from the client. If required, some secondary research on the topic comes next. Usually, research before ideation depends completely on the nature of work and also the time and financial constraints. Next, with a mix of logic and intuition, we dive into conceptualisation followed by execution. We stay abreast of trends and happenings in the design industry so that we are better equipped to handle projects of all kinds with an open mind and skilled hands.

“The beauty of working with Tiffinbox’s three (now two) musketeers is the attention to detail that they bring to the table. You can hear the gears engaging as Rohit patiently gives shape to your rambling brief even as Sriparna cuts to the core of the issue. Brainstorming meetings with them are fun outings for us. As producers of a children’s lit fest, we wouldn’t have liked it any other way.”

~ Venkatesh M, Bookaroo Trust

I need something designed within a day or two.

That’s not us, sorry! Being a two-person team that hand-makes all the designs that go out (and nothing that we can do ourselves is ever out-sourced) we only take projects that have the luxury of time for us to perform at our best. Needless to say, this isn’t applicable to our regular clients that have Tiffinbox on retainer.

Have you done projects for abc industry?

The answer can be yes or no but we don’t think it matters. We believe that a process when applied to any design problem, can yield constructive results. We approach our projects with logic and creativity that has let us achieve desired results for all our clients. Not having worked for a certain industry is a disadvantage only if we have to write content or chalk up a marketing plan, which we anyway don’t handle in-house.

If you as a client have a clear vision for the project then we can come up with relevant design solutions. Take a look at the projects we have showcased on this website to get a sense of the kind of designs we have created, which will help you ascertain whether or not we are the right fit.

What projects are you most proud of?

Umm, let’s see. Afaqs, that helped us experiment with varied illustration styles early on in Tiffinbox’s journey and get better; our posters for CMS Vatavaran film festival way back in 2008 that surprised us with results that far outweighed our expectations of ourselves at that time; all the work we have done for two of our favourite clients – Parag (Tata Trusts) and WaterAid, they played a huge role in shaping Tiffinbox to what it is today; and Pro Helvetia New Delhi for the immense creative satisfaction their projects have afforded us.

“My experience of working with Tiffinbox has been extremely satisfying. Renewables as a concept, to be made palatable for masses in the long run is a task in itself, but Tiffinbox has been conveying it for several years in a very intelligent and interesting manner. The best part of Tiffinbox is, they offer right kind of guidance relevant to brand image, even outside the purview of their assignment.”

~ Meenakshi Sarkar, Hero Future Energies

What kind of projects excite you most?

We really enjoy working on projects that are related to arts, societal issues, environment, literature, and adventure. We are open to working on varied types of projects, especially the ones that have some meaningful contribution to people, society and the environment.

Apart from the sector, relationships matter to us. The projects that excite us are the ones where the client is more like a colleague than a boss. A friendly relationship goes a long way in ensuring a seamless and fulfilling process. It is extremely difficult to work on even the best possible project if the client comes with a sense of entitlement.

What drives you to come back to your desk every morning?

Deadlines of course! But at a more subliminal level, it is the anticipation of being able to think creatively and in the process produce work that solves design problems and ultimately makes us as well as our clients happy. Being able to make designs that can have an impact on the world, even if in a small way, is also one of the reasons to keep on doing what we do. We won’t be curing cancer or cleaning the air, but we can tell more people about it and also help raise money to solve grave crises plaguing our world.

And what drives you away from it?

Mountains, especially the high ones, as they have the fewest people. When we are not designing we like to take long, hard walks through deep valleys and high passes of the Himalayas. There, we like to push ourselves. We camp, draw, paint, record, watch clouds, count stars and breathe deeply.

“… In the course of designing various elements of and for Parag, we have developed a strong working relationship and a friendship. Parag is not just a client for them. They visualise with us the long term goals, the brand strategy and different possibilities for Parag … This partnership has worked because each of us is free to express what we think openly, agree to disagree and take ownership of the final product. If it’s a design partner you want, look no further!”

~ Swaha Sahoo, Parag

How would you describe Tiffinbox if it were a person?

Tiffinbox, in school, was a backbencher. This wasn’t to escape responsibility but to simply avoid attention. Growing up, she realised that her life brightened during the cold months and she really went into a shell during summer. He is that shy friend who thinks more than he talks. He would prefer to stay miles away from anything that has to do with networking, because talking about himself is hard, which is why this answer is in third person. She lives simply and works hard, agonises over carefully drafted emails, fosters animals in need, loves food, loves travel, loves tea, loves coffee and wishes that money wasn’t a thing. He tries to learn new skills not directly linked to his professional pursuits.

Tiffinbox is truly happy in the midst of nature^.

^ This scene is inspired by one of Maurice Sendak’s illustrations in the book ‘Open House for Butterflies’. The book is delightful in its entirety, but this one especially struck a chord with all of us. Take a look at the other pages from the book here.

Common answers to some FAQs

Yes!

• Are you accepting new work right now?
• Do you work with advance payment?

No.

• Can you pitch a proposal to us?
• Can you send us a few designs based on our brief so that we can be sure we want to work with you? *
• Our budget is low and we don’t have a lot of time, can you design a flyer for us? **
• Can you make something that looks like that?
• I just sent you an email, can you reply to that asap?
• Will you work for free?
• Are you hiring?

Maybe…

• Our budget is low and we have time, but we promise to give you creative freedom and an interesting brief, can you design for us?
• Our budget is low as we are an animal charity, can you design for us?

* That’s why this website.

** It doesn’t make sense for us to be involved in a project in which everything from the budget to time to scope of work is low.

Team

Sriparna Ghosh

On most days she would have greeted more dogs than people. She is often berated for a messy workplace and disorganised files but is mostly spared given that her ideas are lightning quick and she works at a breakneck speed. The self-appointed entertainer at Tiffinbox she takes humour more seriously than hygiene. Having fostered more than 15 pups in the last three years, she now campaigns only for adoption of Indian dogs. A compulsive learner and stationery hoarder, she often wonders if she will run out of brain space or shelf space first.

The numerous ideas buzzing in her head recently found an outlet in clay. She loves to create miniature animals, things and places, and sometimes they all come together to tell a story. For one of her ongoing self-initiated projects, she is writing stories, sculpting clay and setting scenes that are based on 3 unrelated words. There will be 25 stories by the end of the project. Recently she has started taking commissions to create portraits and boxes.

Travelling Teadom is her personal photography project, wherein she clicks pictures of all the cups of tea (or coffee) she drinks on her travels.

Rohit Chaudhary

Star barista at Tiffinbox, Rohit runs on caffeine. Apart from a regular supply of coffee, his contribution to Tiffinbox is strong concepts, stronger illustrations and strongest organisation (think invoices and a neat looking workspace). Silent and steady, he will often zone out during brainstorming sessions (he sometimes thinks they're overrated) and find himself reminiscing an old trip to the mountains. Internally, he was once honoured with Dedication Award when he received an error message from Photoshop which said that a file he was working on had reached the maximum number of layers possible*.

When not ideating on a future project, he's busy making maps, mental and literal, for his next walk in the mountains. Relief printing (linocut) was a new found passion in 2016, but has since become a wonderful distraction into which he pours much of his weekends and comes out with beautiful single colour prints of nature scenes (see this and this).

* The number is 8000.

Get in touch

sriparna@tiffinbox.in
rohit@tiffinbox.in

^ For all project enquiries

We like emails and Instagram.

We are based in ~~New Delhi~~ Uttarakhand (India).
Location Update : We left Delhi and shifted to the mountains (Himalayas). How has it been so far? We wonder why we didn’t do it earlier!

Three types of tea can be made in-house.
And coffee can be brewed in six ways.

The long and arduous journey of achieving this completed website has been documented here. This website was developed by our friends at Miranj using Craft CMS.

For internships or job applications: please note that we are currently not hiring. Please also note that while we seldom reply to such emails purely because of low bandwidth we try to read every single email we receive and more often than not also check out the portfolio links they contain. We are truly grateful to all those who express a desire to be a part of Tiffinbox.