People — Sri Aurobindo Kala Sangam

Prof Kirti Trivedi

Designer & Design Educator · Founding Director, SAKS

Kirti Trivedi is among the most significant figures in Indian design education of the past half-century. In 1976 he joined IDC IIT Bombay, where he would spend nearly five decades shaping the institution and the profession. In 1981, as a UNESCO Fellow, he travelled to Japan and worked under Kohei Sugiura — the encounter that set the direction of his life's work.

He founded India's first Master of Design Programme in Visual Communication, developed the Indic Scripts Research Centre and its journal Matrika, and participated in the 2007 Asian Design seminar at Nanyang Technological University alongside Sugiura, Ahn Sang-soo, and Lu Jingren — contributing to Sugiura's published philosophy of Asian graphic design as its Indian voice.

By December 2025, his teaching career had reached fifty years, marked by a retrospective exhibition in Bangalore. SAKS is the institutional form of that entire body of work — the dedicated home for the methodology and practice he has developed across a career no other single person in Indian design can match.

An eminent Board of Advisors, composed of the most respected creative minds in India, combining the ancient wisdom of traditional shastras with contemporary expressions of creativity across the visual and performing arts — a Padma Vibhushan sculptor, a master temple architect, a celebrated filmmaker, a National Award-winning music director, a world authority on Tantric art, and a visionary educator. Their presence is both a mark of the institution's seriousness and a guarantee of its reach.

Padma Vibhushan

Shri Sudarshan Sahoo

Sthapati

Eminent sculptor and temple architect. One of India's foremost living authorities on classical temple architecture and stone sculpture.

K P Umapathy Acharya

Sthapati

Master temple architect in the tradition of Vastu Shastra and Agama Shastra. Advisor on Indian classical aesthetics and spatial philosophy.

Bharatbala Ganapathy

Film-maker

Award-winning filmmaker known for landmark works at the intersection of Indian culture, spirituality, and contemporary visual media.

M Jayachandran

Music Director

Celebrated music director and composer. National Award winner. Advisor on music, performance, and Indian aesthetic traditions.

Dr Madhu Khanna

Tantra Art Expert & Scholar

Scholar and author on Tantra, Yantra, and Indian aesthetic philosophy. One of the world's foremost authorities on Tantric art.

Hari Sankaran

Education Visionary

Institution builder and education leader with sustained commitment to creative education in India.

Prof Jesvin Yeo

School of Art, Design & Media, Singapore

Design educator and researcher. Advisory role in program design and international positioning of the PG Program.

Prof Punya Mishra

Arizona State University, USA

Design, technology, and creativity in education. Advisory role in the post-AI curriculum strand of the PG Program.

Muktha Hiremath

Communication Designer

Communication designer and co-designer of Matrika, the SAKS journal of Indic Scripts.

Sindhu Kulkarni

Founder Director, Tacit

Founder Director of Tacit. Design practitioner and institution builder.

Sneha M L

Founder, Dig Design

Radhika Tipnis

Publication Designer

Publication designer with deep expertise in editorial and book design.

S K Mohanty

Font Designer & Calligrapher
Research Director, ISRC

India's most respected font designer. Over 35 years in digital font design and Indic script development. Research Director of the Indic Scripts Research Centre at SAKS.

Harshvardhan Kadam

Environmental Artist, Pune

Environmental artist and muralist working at the intersection of mythology, Tantric art, and public space.

Hanu Trivedi

Media & Event Planner

Media and event planning professional. Responsible for institutional events and public programming at SAKS.

Prof Kirti Trivedi

Program Director

Designer, educator, founding director of SAKS.

Prof Lalit Kumar Das

Founder, DoD, IIT Delhi

Founder of the Department of Design at IIT Delhi. Pioneer of design education in India's technical university system.

Prof Praveen Nahar

Head, DoD, IIT Gandhinagar
Former Director, NID Ahmedabad

Design educator and institution builder. Former Director of NID Ahmedabad.

Dr Dinesh Katre

Founder & Director, EngramLogic, Pune

Researcher and practitioner in human-computer interaction and design.

Shri Hari Sankaran

Education Visionary

Education leader and SAKS Board of Advisors member. Faculty for institutional design and educational leadership.

Dr Saurabh Tewari

DoD, IIT Delhi

Design researcher and educator at IIT Delhi's Department of Design.

Shri S K Mohanty

Typographer & Font Designer, Bangalore

Indic script typography specialist. Faculty for the Indic Scripts strand of the PG Program.

Harshvardhan Kadam

Environmental Artist, Pune

Environmental artist and founding partner. Faculty for the studio and practice strand.

The creative life of India, assembled.
Fifty years of teaching. A lineage
from Tokyo to Puducherry.

Founding Director

Board of Advisors

International Advisory

Founding Partners