Shaunak Samvatsar is a budding political cartoonist, who has illustrated
a few books for Karadi Tales, and has a gag comic strip, 'Phuskuman',
in Tinkle. He has also worked in the pre production design for animated
films like Tripura: The Three Cities of Maya and Swami Ayyappan. Growing
up in Aurangabad, Samvatsar was a voracious reader thanks to a local
lending library. He read a lot of poetry, story books and comics and
also dabbled in cartooning and doodling. All this has helped him make
unique observations and come up with enjoyable narratives. His father, a
mechanical engineer, had a flair for working with machines and his
mother had her own industrial unit at Aurangabad. This was one of the
reasons for Samvatsar to study mechanical engineering at Jawaharlal
Nehru Engineering College in the city. He then worked in sales for an
engineering company before joining IIT-Bombay for the master of design
programme. He was a keen Judoka (one who practices Judo), which has
taught him the importance of teamwork and how to deflect an opponent's attack.
Samvatsar's i-SAW Ventures creates awareness and conducts training on
Information Security (defending information from unauthorised access,
use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection,
recording or destruction), using eye-catching animated artwork. His
schoolmate and co-founder, Ashwin Gangakhedkar, understood the need for
effective communication in the field of IS and they started contributing
cartoons to the ISACA (international association focused on IT
governance) Journal that addressed many e-security concerns. The readers
had never seen such animated content before, and loved their work. That
even artists could understand such a complex topic and explain it to a
layman, made their work much sought after. Their artwork-powered
programmes have become a boon for IT companies, BPOs and banks, where
the percolation of IS awareness to the last node is often missing. Their
posters and screensavers greatly reduce the IS risks that cannot be
addressed by software and hardware policies, and is a fun way of
learning for the employees of their customers. They are also creating
interactive animations, based on extensive research on IS pain points
faced by companies that can be deployed to give a better learning
experience to the employees. "My stint in the creative world taught me
that good communication leads to an effective product. Design is about
self expression as much as it is about understanding what one wants to
communicate. I had to improve my skills in this area," recounts
Samvatsar, who also teaches at the Symbiosis Institute of Design, Pune. -
rohit@learnbizsolutions.com
