With FÖDA (2023 - 2024)
Copenhagen, DK
For Alouette—a Michelin-starred fine dining space by architect David Thulstrup (of Noma 2.0 and Ikoyi fame)—the work began at the edges: light, metal, shadow, and the quiet disciplines that make a room feel inevitable.
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With FÖDA (2020 - 2025) (for Specialized Real Estate Group)
The Ozarks, USA
The Stonebreaker behaves like a house with a past that never got demolished, only edited. Set on Fayetteville’s Markham Hill, it threads a restored Victorian home into a new 78-key retreat: hotel, restaurant, bar, and private members’ club, often described by media as “timeless,” which usually means someone has made a hundred decisions so you don’t have to notice any of them.
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Studio notes + reference library, (2018 - present)
Various locations
Brands don’t live in decks. They live in the things that get smudged, wiped down, chipped, held, and grabbed without a second thought. Menus, holders, signage, check presenters, coasters, door labels, edges, seams. Treated properly, this supporting cast does something quietly subversive: it holds the identity together when no one is “doing branding.”
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With FÖDA (2021 - 2023)
Houston, TX, USA
Houston Symphony, Jones Hall, and Music Director Juraj Valčuha formed the working triangle: a century-old institution, a room built to contain it, and a new era walking onto the podium. The project started with conversation, not composition. Time with musicians and leadership, listening for how the Symphony actually lives in Houston rather than how it describes itself.
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With FÖDA (2019 - 2025)
California, USA
A Golden State is built like a landscape. A color-coded suite and pyramidal typographic system, each shade mapped to a specific strain and name, anchored to the idea of product as an extension of land and Mt. Shasta snowmelt. The system has picked up multiple recognition at the Dieline Awards along the way, which feels about right for packaging this obsessive.
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Marginalia
It asks for logic, then laughs at it. It rewards curiosity, then punishes complacency. Somewhere between rigor and risk lies meaning; that’s where I work.
I am not a graphic designer so much as a research-led systems thinker with a weakness for beautiful type and chaos. I lead with questions, not to be difficult (though that has been said with affection), but because I believe design is less about answers and more about reframing what we think we know.
20 years in, my background remains delightfully messy: designer, researcher, strategist, educator, anthropologist in denial, and currently a Doctor of Design candidate studying how crisis reshapes consumption. At FÖDA® in Austin, I work with a team that treats curiosity like oxygen. We don’t do “cool.” We do thoughtful.
My process is part science, part séance; a polite argument between reason and intuition. Whether branding a hotel or decoding behavior, I turn data into empathy and ideas into forms that usually behave. I read and write as much as I draw. I reference as much as I riff. And I am convinced that good design isn’t always the prettiest in the room, but it is always the one that makes you pause, tilt your head, mutter “hmm”, and reconsider what you thought you knew.
I am interested in the seams; the bits most people skip over, the why behind the why, the awkward middle where something real happens. So no, there’s no personal style here, just a way of thinking.
Restless by nature. Rigorous by habit. Rebellious only when necessary. I take design seriously. Everything else is negotiation.
Fluent
ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
Fluent
हिन्दी (Hindi)
Fluent
தமிழ் (Tamil)
Conversational
తెలుగు (Telugu)
Conversational
(Design & Psychology)
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC, USA
Master of Fine Arts
Vermont College of Fine Arts
Montpelier, VT, USA
Bachelor of Arts
The Art Institute of Colorado
Denver, CO, USA
FÖDA®, Austin, TX, USA
(since 2019)
Sr. Brand Designer, Associate
Perkins and Will
Austin, TX, USA
2019
Sr. Brand Designer
Gensler
Austin, TX, USA
2018 - 2019
Sr. Designer
VSA Partners
Chicago, IL, USA
2018
Designer
Cactus
Denver, CO, USA
2015 - 2018
Graphic Design Intern
LRXD
Denver, CO, USA
2014 - 2015
Graphic Design Intern
Shift Workspaces
Denver, CO, USA
2014
Account & Brand Manager
Opus CDM
Bangalore, India
2008 - 2011
Client Servicing Executive
Adverto Advertising
Bangalore, India
2006 - 2008
Client Servicing Executive
Dialog Inc.
Bangalore, India
2006
Clover Park Technical College
Lakewood, WA, USA
(2023 - present)
Adjunct Professor
University of Texas
Austin, TX, USA
2021, 2024
Adjunct Faculty
DePaul University
Chicago, IL, USA
2021
Adjunct Professor
St. Edward’s University
Austin, TX, USA
2020 - 2021
Adjunct Faculty
Art Institute of Austin
Austin, TX, USA
2019 - 2020
Texas State University
School of Art & Design
2025
Guest Speaker
Anderson University
South Carolina
2024
Alumni Panelist
Vermont College of Fine Arts
Montpelier, Vermont
2024
Panel Moderator
5th Annual DDes Symposium
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC
2022
Guest Speaker
Anderson University
South Carolina
2022
Panelist
University of Texas at Austin
Capstone Exhibition
Austin, TX
2021
Panelist
Career Panel, “Trends in Contemporary Design”
DePaul University
Chicago, IL
2020
Speaker & Panelist
Design Incubation 5.3
Merrimack College
2019
TEDxNCState, North Carolina, USA
2026
Speaker
SXSW / SXSW EDU, Austin, TX, USA
2026
Speaker
ATypI Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark
2025
Leadership Workshop
Storyline Strategies, Palm Springs, CA, USA
2025
Speaker
Brand New Conference, Austin, TX, USA
2022
Podcast Guest
“Ground and Gratitude,” episode: “Blending Strategy & Design with Shruthi Manjula Balakrishna”
2022
Podcast Guest
“Graphic Support Group,” Episode 18: “Adaptability”
2022
Communication Workshop
Transwestern, Chicago, IL, USA
2022
Speaker
AIGA GROW Conference, Austin, TX, USA
2020
Peer Reviewer
AIGA National Design Education Symposium
2020
Speaker
13th International Design Principles & Practices Conference, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2019
Speaker
CDM Research Colloquium, Chicago, IL, USA
2019
Keynote Speaker
SSGDS, AIGA Arkansas State, USA
2019
Portfolio Reviewer
AIGA Memphis, USA
2019
Judge
8th Annual SSGDS Graphic Design Show, AIGA Arkansas
2019
Branding Chair
AIGA Colorado Board of Directors , Denver, CO, USA
2016
An Interior, "Ready to Stay" (SOAP)
2026
Exhibition
Hundred Points, Austin-São Paulo-Cairo-Helsinki
Austin, TX 2025
Feature
Print Magazine, "Global, Boundary-Pushing Graphic Design Converges in ATX Exhibition" (Hundred Points)
2025
Feature
The Architect’s Newspaper July/August issue, “Razorback to the Land” (Stonebreaker)
2025
DDes Research Fellowship Award
College of Design, North Carolina State University
2025, 2024
Exhibition
Brand New Conference, Salt Lake City, UT (Campaign for the Houston Symphony)
2024
Featured
Brand New, “Houston Symphony Identity Re-Design”
2022
Featured
Brand New, Year in Review: The Best in Icons (Monograms), Houston Symphony ranked #2 globally
2022
University Graduate Fellowship
Graduate School, North Carolina State University
2021
Best of Home (A Golden State)
Shopping & Other Markets, Dieline Awards
2021
3rd Place, Tobacco & Cannabis Packaging (A Golden State), Dieline Awards
2021
American Graphic Design Award™
GDUSA, “Under the Influence—Enter the Void”
2019
Silver
Graphis Design Annual, “Protect Our Winters, The Devil’s Crotch”
2019
Featured
Lürzer’s Archive, “Protect Our Winters, The Devil’s Crotch”
2018
Packaging Design Award
GDUSA, “Sunny Rain, Odell Brewing”
2018
American Graphic Design Award™
GDUSA, “Price of Values”
2018
Winner (Man Therapy, Colorado Lottery)
Ad Club Denver, The 50 Gala
2018
Students to Watch (VCFA)
GDUSA
2018
AIGA Award
AIGA Vermont
2017
Gold (Lyra Health) + Silver (Man Therapy Website)
The One Club for Creativity, One Show Denver
2017
Winner, Ad Club Denver
The 50 Gala (Various campaigns: Colorado Lottery (Atari TV), Applejack (Rebrand), Denver Health (Branding), Devil’s Crotch (Illustration))
2016
Robert Taylor Scholarship
AIGA Colorado
2014
If you want a tailored selection of work, tuned to your context, please contact me. I've learned that showing everything is easy; showing the right things is the work.
Type set in Marist by Dinamo. Built on Cargo. Support from Snacks Studio.
©Shruthi Manjula Balakrishna.
Current as of March 2026
Index Note
Working drafts · Open files ·
Design as Inquiry is a public index of working notes, including short essays, reports, and experiments in progress. No case studies; just the thinking that makes the practice behave.
Practice lives next door