Ishan Khosla (b. Fort Kochi, 1976) is a visual artist, designer, researcher, and educator based in Dehradun, India. A TED speaker, and a Type Directors Club winner, he holds an MFA in Design from the School of Visual Arts, New York. His work is about exploring the margins of art, craft and design. It addresses the overlooked, the unseen and marginalized voices of the Global South—both in urban or rural spaces. His interest is in exploring street and vernacular culture and the ways people navigate and inhabit these spaces. 

Ishan was on the working group of Don Norman’s Future of Pluriversal Design Education (2023–24), and has written the curriculum for Craft Communications program (IICD, Jaipur). His MFA thesis on design education in India (DESI) 2004–05, also underscore his commitment to South Asian design pedagogy.

In 2011, Ishan founded The Typecraft Initiative, a platform that collaborates with craftspeople, indigenous artists, refugees, women, and religious minorities to co-create digital typefaces rooted in traditional art forms such as tattoos, embroideries, and motifs. These typefaces are not only tools for communication but also living archives—bridging ancient practices with contemporary design and digital technology. Typecraft reframes type design from its colonial, patriarchal and minimalist roots to one that celebrates complexity, humanism and indigenous knowledge.

Through Typecraft, Ishan addresses broader themes of cultural preservation, sustainability, equity, and the politics of representation. His work has been exhibited internationally—including at the Venice Biennale, London Design Biennial, Ginza Graphic Gallery (Tokyo), Atelier Muji (Tokyo), and RMIT Gallery (Melbourne)—and is part of several public museum and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), Letterpress Archive (USA), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Japan), The Munjal Foundation (Serendipity Art Festival), Devi Art Foundation, and the Powerhouse Museum (Australia).

Alongside his practice, Ishan writes, lectures, and teaches widely, sharing his insights on design, craft, and culture at global forums such as ATypI (2020, 2026), College Art Association (CAA), CIHA, the AIGA Design Conference, and Semi-Permanent. He has lectured at various institutions such as Japan Foundation (Tokyo), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, University of Edinburgh, Alto University, Gyeonggi Biennale, SVA (NY), California College of Art, College Art Association, the Powerhouse Museum (Sydney) among others.

His published work in books and journals that address everything from an indigenous tattoo based typeface (Marg magazine, December, 2024), to the socio-political analysis of brooms (in Field of Brooms [Christan Verlag] and his own works on ecology where animals are addressed (in The Politics of Global Craft [Bloomsbury]

Ishan sees design as a tool for transformation—one that can amplify marginalized voices, preserve endangered traditions, and inspire new creative possibilities for bringing communities together worldwide in an ever divisive world.