How Miṇuku Began
I’m a Tamilian who grew up in Bangalore and married a Malayali... which means Kannada, Tamil, and Malayalam all feel like home to me.
The word Miṇuku (ಮಿಣುಕು) means sparkle in Kannada. Tamil (மினுக்கு) and Malayalam (മിനുക്ക്) share the same word with similar meanings; which probably means three entire cultures decided sparkle was important.
And I agree. If it were possible, I would happily climb onto the tallest building in the world and throw sparkle across the entire planet.
Just whoosh.
Sparkle on streets, walls, notebooks, fabrics, mugs, children’s rooms... everywhere!
Unfortunately, large-scale planetary sparkle distribution is not my superpower… not that anything else is either.
So I started with the next best thing I knew- ART!
And that’s how Miṇuku Studio was born.
The Little Muse Behind the Logo
Miṇuku is run by me - Deepthi, an illustrator and surface pattern designer based in Bangalore.
You might notice that the Miṇuku logo is a cat. That’s inspired by my ginger cat Simba, also known as Chinnupu, who was very dear to me. In a small illustrated way, he continues to be part of the story here.
The Person Behind The Sparkle
I’ve been drawing for about as long as I’ve been able to hold a pencil. My childhood was filled with art classes in school, art classes outside, crafts workshops, and the unofficial title of greeting card maker for every birthday...
I later studied Fashion Design, which is where I discovered something magical: illustrations don’t have to stay inside frames.
They can travel.
Across fabrics.
Across stationery.
Across everyday objects.
This eventually led me to surface pattern design - the art of turning illustrations into repeating patterns for products and surfaces.
Over the years I worked across design and illustration, but the work that excited me most was always the playful kind... the kind full of small details that make people pause and smile.
Those drawings slowly turned into patterns.
And somewhere along the way, Miṇuku came into being.
Where the Spark Came From
Growing up, my parents were both my best friends and my biggest inspiration.
My father was a businessman who never left a stone unturned when it came to discovering what could become a business. In fact, he was one of the pioneers of electric scooters in India all the way back in 2000... but that’s a whole other story that probably deserves its own website.
My mother, on the other hand, has always been the most artsy person I know. Throughout her life she has been an avid learner and practitioner of countless art forms: from metal embossing and candle-making to handmade flowers, and even cooking across more than ten different cuisines.
So when I naturally drifted toward art, nobody at home was surprised.
In fact, my dad was always excited about the idea of me starting my own business as soon as possible. It took some time to get there, but what ultimately gave me the confidence to turn my art into a business was the perfect combination of my mother’s creative spirit and my father’s entrepreneurial legacy, and their unwavering belief in everything I chose to do.
In many ways, Miṇuku carries a little bit of both of them - creativity, curiosity, and the courage to build something of your own.