Uprising: Reading an Editorial Cartoon a Day with Shrilakhshmi Vinod

“If there were three synonyms in the Thesaurus to my name, it would be bibliophile, most-of-my-work-stays-in-my-head illustrator, and collector of anything cat-related,” says MRM’s junior art director Shrilakhshmi Vinod, otherwise known as Shri.

Indian by heritage, the creative spent the better half of her life living in the UAE’s third most populous city of Sharjah, before making the move to Hamburg and then her current location of Frankfurt, Germany. “I lived in a neighbourhood that did not have any other kids around. As a quiet and super introverted child, I ended up spending all my free time reading or watching dramatic Indian soap operas,” she explains, reflecting on her childhood. 

“I was always reading anything I could get my hands on. I was making up endless stories in my head, that I sadly never penned down. But I always wished I authored a book, even though my idea of ‘an adult job or career’ changed every four to five business months,” Shri says. With the changing career ventures, however, advertising wasn’t really ever part of the equation. “My level of understanding of what advertising is was watching the 15-minute ad break during a 30-minute serial.”

The mystery of how she then got into the industry comes from her choice of university degree, media and communications, which she studied for in India. Her love of books got her to that point and she says, “I thought this would be something that would help me kickstart my dream of writing and the easiest route to that being journalism. I was super excited about this. But the first year of college was a reality check.”

As she had enrolled and begun studying, writing was no longer a pleasure, rather, it became a chore she no longer felt the motivation to do. “I basically felt lost,” she reflects, “Plus when I ended my first internship at a newspaper agency, their parting advice to me was, ‘There’s no scope in journalism for you here. It’s already dead. Do something else.’ Imagine the encouragement I got.”

With that sombre note, she carried on and looked for some sort of inspiration for what to do going forward. It was then that her university had director Prahlad Kakkar attend as a guest speaker. Listening to his words, Shri says, “Something he said in his speech about his work that day excited me. “I wish I did this” was my first thought.” 

Taking up a minor in advertising and learning more about the industry, she warmed up to the idea that it might be the right career path for her. “I didn’t believe I was good at it, but I definitely had fun, and that’s what’s important,” she says. Following that feeling of fun and with the drive to learn more, Shri applied to the Miami Ad School in Hamburg. “My journey from wanting to write to wanting to create visuals doesn’t make sense, but it does so in my head. The defining question that shaped my career choice between art direction and copywriting was – ‘Did I want to write radio ads someday?’ – and then I had my answer.”

With almost two years at MRM under her belt, Shri has been enjoying an unusual aspect of the process. “What I absolutely love about being in advertising is the people-watching. ‘Why did someone hold a can of beans this way?’, ‘Why do people like watching videos of people unclogging drains?’, ‘Why is everyone making this post viral now?’” 

She continues, “People are super interesting, and they never fail to surprise me. I believe ‘people-watching’ goes beyond mere observation. It is also empathising. What are their needs, desires, and what do they hate? These are basics of marketing but I feel like people sometimes tend to forget empathising when people-watching or finding ‘insights’ for their campaigns.”

For Shri, people-watching comes in a few windows, and the insights she gains are backed up by editorial cartoon panels to support her theories. “When I need a bite-sized summarisation of today’s current events, a chuckle, or even food for thought, reading an editorial cartoon panel is my go-to hack. I completely believe that an editorial cartoon a day keeps you informed in a way.” But much like any others in gen z, her information bank also comes from TikTok as a daily overview of insights, served to her alongside the entertainment news on the platform. 

Alongside this, something that has found its way into pretty much every facet of life is AI, and that’s been something on Shri’s mind. “One thing that irks me is when people say that my job is going to be taken over by AI,” she explains. “Will ChatGPT help pick the best typography for my project? Will Midjourney help create the logo I need? Sometimes AI’s outputs are beautiful but just so soulless.” That human element is what she believes can’t be replicated by AI. She continues, “It’s just another tool like Photoshop for now, and definitely helps me save some time – that is when I find the right keywords. Ethics though, is another topic for another time.”

Moving aside from that and coming back into the social media side of things, there’s a new hobby that’s caught Shri’s interest, and it comes in the form of physical craft rather than online learning. “Thanks to TikTok, my latest obsession/hobby has been pop-up books. Learning about this form of paper engineering and its intricacies is very fascinating,” explains Shri. 

She found out, through researching the craft more extensively, that the production process of this art form is 90% handmade, and so she’s found inspiration on YouTube. “Matthew Reinhart’s Transformers and Marion Bastille’s typographic works are truly stunning,” she continues, “I see pop-up books as an underrated collector’s item.”

With her appreciation of all things craft, she leaves us with why it’s important not only to hone her digital craft, but also to take some time away to develop other skills. “As an art director, or what we call ‘Artie’, spending so much time creating stuff digitally, I think it’s necessary to get your hands dirty again, like a kid, and see how much you can create with just a pair of scissors, glue and paper.”