Take a peek inside Mindspill, the typographic diary of Shrey Kathuria

Throughout a very quiet second in time, when work had slowed and social life had gone nonetheless, Shrey Kathuria sat down and made a poster. He created Slowness Is Not Your Enemy, the primary of an enormous poster archive known as Mindspill.

Shrey is a Delhi-born, London-based designer and artwork director who has spent the previous 4 years because the visible lead at One Little Impartial Information, the label that’s dwelling to Björk, Laura Misch, Galya Bisengalieva, Asgeir and the Sneaker Pimps, amongst others. His day-to-day work includes directing album artwork, artist branding, merch and commissioning different creatives – designing intimate, high-stakes visuals for a label that has by no means been notably keen on enjoying it protected. Alongside OLI, he freelances throughout music and branding, with credit together with Jordan Rakei, Aurora, Atlantic Information UK and Anoushka Shankar.

The non-public work, alternatively, operates a bit otherwise from his business aspect. Shrey grew up in Delhi, inside a small, tight-knit music scene centred round metallic, then digital, after which experimental – the place hanging round with artists and collectives grew to become the tender launch of his design profession. Transferring to London for his grasp’s on the London School of Communication in 2021 was the transformative second. “Virtually as if I began to shed my outdated pores and skin from day one,” he says, “and proceed to take action.” That means of navigating a brand new metropolis, a predominantly white business, a collectivist upbringing transplanted right into a extremely individualistic tradition, grew to become the fabric from which Mindspill was constructed.

The archive, began in late 2025, is a sequence of typographic posters, every one rooted in one thing Shrey was considering, feeling or telling himself throughout this time. “For essentially the most half, these posters got here collectively from issues I saved telling myself throughout tough durations, or ideas that surfaced once I was a much more anxious particular person,” he explains. “Someplace within the course of, my interior dialogue slowly started to vary. So what started as anxious, detrimental considering regularly changed into a a lot kinder voice – a kind of interior dialogue rooted in optimism and motive. And that’s the crux of Mindspill. Every poster is a bit milestone on this lengthy journey of self-discovery and studying.”

Shrey’s course of begins with a phrase in a easy font created in Illustrator. Then he pushes it so far as it should go, utilizing completely different brushes, shapes, and letters drawn instantly on a trackpad. There was additionally a short charcoal part, throughout which he drew together with his left hand. Subsequent, he strikes the vector skeleton into Photoshop, the place blurs, filters and results are utilized till the visible tone matches the emotional weight of the phrases. Different posters use experimental typesetting in InDesign, wherein he creates kind on uncommon paths and grid-based compositions, the place color and texture carry the sensation. The outcomes are intentionally exhausting to learn. “I get immense pleasure from distorting the sh*t out of a typeface,” he says, “and for me, that is the purest type of revolt towards cleanliness in graphic design.”

In Quantity 07: Decentre All That Does not Serve, the poster was derived from a interval when friendships felt hole, and the cultural hole between his collectivist background and London’s individualism felt particularly sharp. He rendered it in 3D, formed like a rock – which he admits, with a bit self-awareness, he most likely ought to have spent a bit extra time on. #13: You Put It On A Pedestal was created after a protracted, sophisticated friendship ended, in a tangle of envy, self-doubt and one thing shut to like. The typography is definitely fairly easy; it landed effectively. “Possibly much less actually is extra,” he says. “Who is aware of.”

Quantity 18: Do not Burn The Home That Made You is about the home in Delhi the place he grew up. “I largely felt embarrassed by it, however over time I’ve come to really feel an actual love and connection to it. It nonetheless feels barely uncomfortable, but it surely’s nonetheless my nest, y’know. My dad and mom are all the time there, and every time I am going again, it looks like I by no means left.” Zoom into the poster, and there’s a poem written on it. Moons float via the composition as symbols of the mysticism of leaving your childhood dwelling and ending up someplace new.

Shrey’s plan for Mindspill is to open it up, ultimately inviting different designers to contribute posters, turning the archive right into a shared house for typographic experimentation and emotional honesty. For now, kinetic kind is subsequent – returning to After Results and exploring Cavalry, bringing movement again into private work. “I am busier lately, and discovering time for brand spanking new private challenges is more durable,” he says, “which is precisely why I wish to get again into it.”