Born and brought up in a small village called Arachalur near Erode, Kathir’s childhood wasn’t a pleasant one. After his father’s death, his mother took over the responsibilities of raising her two sons. Right from childhood, he was inclined towards painting, designing and typography. Not just financial problems, there weren’t any avenues in his hometown to pursue art. Fighting against all odds, this youngster got the golden opportunity to redesign Tamil Nadu State Board textbook covers. In a candid chat with DTNext, Kathir, who currently resides in Ramapuram, Chennai, opens up about his journey and how he landed the unique opportunity.

  

 “My mother was a daily wage labourer and earned Rs 80 per day. I decided to quit school — not just to help my mother, but somehow, I wasn’t able to fit myself into the academics. I wanted to do something in art but didn’t know where or how to start. I joined a design company in Erode as a tea boy. I also worked in various places to earn the money I needed for the graphic designing course fee. Even I went for painting houses along with the Sri Lankan refugees, who were staying in Erode at that time,” Kathir starts the conversation.

He met Sivaraj from Cuckoo Forest School, who after seeing Kathir’s interest in art, gifted him a book written by Vincent Van Gogh. “Instead of doing odd jobs, Sivaraj anna asked me to focus on art. I started working at a school in Erode and a few artists from Chennai had come to teach painting to the children. One of the artists appreciated my work. Later, he introduced me to several prominent artists in Chennai and took me to all the art exhibitions. With his help, I got a job as a designer in Uyirmmai Publications,” he shares.

Apart from working as a layout artist for popular magazines, he also designed covers for Tamil authors like Sujatha. As the conversation veered towards how he got the assignment to design the textbook covers, he says, “I couldn’t finish my school education and getting this designing project was sheer luck. God had different plans for me when I decided to quit school. I wanted to pursue a professional degree in arts, but I don’t have the basic educational qualification. It lifted my spirits when I got this project, thanks to T. Udhayachandran (School Education Secretary), Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal and filmmaker Dhanapal Padmanabhan.”

Kathir got a designing lab at DPI, Nungambakkam, where he designs the textbooks under the guidance of the TN State Board Education Committee. “I am assigned to design the covers of all the textbooks from Class 1 to 11. Our idea is that children shouldn’t feel bored when they take books to study, rather they should feel excited by seeing the cover designs. These textbooks will be made available from the next academic year,” he explains.

The artist has used refreshing patterns and designs to make the book covers look interesting. The covers have an interesting mix of colours and charming illustrations. He follows a trial and error method: Kathir creates around 30-40 designs for each book and then finalise the best one. “Artist Trotsky Marudu, known for line drawing, animation and storyboard, is my guru. I take suggestions from him and Udhayachandran sir. We finalise the designs only after submitting the copies to the education committee. I know it’s a responsible task and I’ve given my best,” says Kathir, who has been collaborating with artists from Tamil Nadu and Kerala for interesting projects.

Once he completes the textbook designing project, Kathir plans to focus on his other interests — developing new font styles for the Tamil language. “If you browse the internet, you could find thousands of fonts for English, but only a few for Tamil. I love typography and hope to create some interesting fonts for my mother tongue. Designing movie posters is another area of interest,” he sums up.