I had connected with Shaunak Samvatsar and Ashwin G last month, and was able to write about them in the New Indian Express dated March 17th 2014.

Teaching Through Cartoons

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 is an entrepreneur in the elearning space and makes business simulation games that are used for assessments by colleges and recruitment / training by companies. He has been writing for The New Indian Express since 2011, mostly about entrepreneurship and education related stuff.

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