Kanika Nair is a visual storyteller. She has illustrated 22 children’s titles and designed 30 books for several award winning Indian publications. Her book titles have been published in English and multilingual Indian regional languages. Also, rights of recent titles have been sold to publishers in Japan, Germany, France and Africa.
Kanika Nair is the fantastic illustrator of my Farmer Falgu stories published by Karadi Tales. We are celebrating the 2nd Anniversary of the first title in the series Farmer Falgu Goes on a Trip.
Since that day, Farmer Falgu has travelled to many countries and gone from strength to strength. Farmer Falgu is now available in French and Japanese and soon to be available in bi-lingual editions in Germany. Farmer Falgu will also be available in the US this autumn.
As co-creators, both Kanika and I are so proud of Farmer Falgu’s success. We are delighted that everyone loves Farmer Falgu as much as we do. So I asked Kanika Nair to talk about her experience of illustrating the Farmer Falgu series. Here is what she told me.
The Indian colourful cultural canvas has always fascinated and inspired my designs and illustration style. I enjoy the medium of STORYTELLING and believe it gives character, expression and voice to any design and thus effectively connect to its audience at a universal scale.
Farmer Falgu Series has been one of my favourites. While reading the script for illustrating I felt an interesting connection between the story and my hometown. Thus, decided to set the story in Rajasthan, a state in northern India that is rich in historical significance and famous for its vibrant colourful culture.
Since, Rajasthan is the place where I have spent most of my growing years, I had lots of insights to incorporate in the illustrations.
Chitra’s writing has so many layers in her style of storytelling in terms of sounds, characters and landscapes. Thus, giving a great opportunity to explore my imagination and creativity!
Really joyful to witness that Falgu Series is been enjoyed by a wide audience at a global scale!!!
You can find out more about Farmer Falgu’s journey here.