People of Print’s Gradspotters programme spotlights emerging graduate talent working in print and image-making. Our latest prospect is Shekar Menon, a Mumbai-born graphic designer based in New Jersey who holds an MFA from MICA, whose practice is built on reading cities through their signs, textures and everyday visual culture.
Shekar Menon is interested in what cities say about themselves before anyone has spoken a word. The signage on a block, the typography on a shopfront, the murals that accumulate on a wall over years: these are the visual systems he documents, translates and works with. His practice moves between illustration, editorial design and material experimentation, using both digital and analogue processes, and it is consistently grounded in a specific place observed with sustained attention.
His three MFA projects each demonstrate that approach applied to a different scale and context.
All the Parts Matter is the most ambitious of the three: a visual study of Baltimore’s graphic culture conducted through a personal lens. Documenting signage, murals and everyday typography across the city’s diverse neighbourhoods, the project examines how design and identity are inseparable in urban environments. Rather than producing a survey, Shekar frames the work as an ongoing dialogue with the city — finding connections between its subcultures, histories and visual character that would be invisible to anyone moving through too quickly.
Science Snacks takes a different angle. Inspired by The Exploratorium’s educational programme of the same name, the project transforms ten ecology experiments into portable pamphlets designed to make hands-on science accessible to children. Drawing from scientific documentation systems as a visual reference, the series gives young readers the experience of being scientists rather than students. It is a reminder that Shekar’s interest in visual communication is not purely observational: he is equally interested in how design can make knowledge available to people who might otherwise be excluded from it.
Pearson’s Florist, the printmaking project, brings both strands together. Focused on a single flower shop in Station North, Baltimore, surrounded by dilapidated buildings, graffiti and layered urban textures, the work captures the contrast between beauty and decay through screen printing and Risograph. The prints do not document the shop so much as translate its atmosphere into physical artefacts — tactile objects that hold something of the neighbourhood’s character in the way that a photograph cannot.
Shekar is now looking to collaborate with studios and organisations that value thoughtful visual communication, while continuing to develop his practice around urban storytelling. He has already been recognised by Communication Arts, The Design Kids, Kyoorius and the Society of Typographic Arts.
Website: shekarmenon.com Instagram: @mosunkai
Three projects, three different contexts, one consistent intelligence. Shekar’s ability to move between large-scale urban documentation and intimate, community-facing editorial design without losing clarity of purpose is exactly what Gradspotters is looking for. The Pearson’s Florist prints alone demonstrate a level of material sensitivity that takes most practitioners years to develop. Gradspotters exists to support people at this stage of their practice: skilled enough to be taken seriously, early enough in their career to benefit from mentorship and professional connection.
Applications are open
Gradspotters is People of Print’s programme for emerging graduates working in print, image-making and visual practice. We are looking for the next generation of printmakers, illustrators, designers and artists ready to take their practice beyond graduation and into the world.
Entry costs £20. Every applicant receives visibility on the People of Print platform. Selected prospects receive a full feature, mentorship and practical support with building their practice and career.
If you are a recent graduate, or know one who should be on our radar, this is the programme worth applying to.
Apply at peopleofprint.com/gradspotters
