Shailendra Singh, an architect and urban designer by profession grew up with a love of reading comics and graphic novels, and has a true passion for sketching, illustrating, and cartooning since an early age. Shailendra’s career and training in architecture has further enabled him to tell a visual story through design and graphics.
His first published work as an illustrator was in 1998 when his sketches formed part of the narrative for The Femina Book of Absolute Beauty by authors Pratima Raichur and Marian Cohn. He has cartooned for the national edition of two reputed Indian newspapers, The Times of India and The Indian Express, as well as Inside-Outside, an architectural and interior design magazine in India. In the United States, he has illustrated for the North American edition of The Indian Express on issues addressing lifestyles of the Indian diaspora in America.
Shailendra was the official cartoonist for The New Towns magazine, a publication on traditional neighborhoods where he effectively combined his illustrating skills and knowledge of architecture and planning. His cartoons that reflect urban planning issues in provocative but hilarious scenarios have since been shared by planning professionals in their presentations.
After receiving a Bachelor in Architecture from the Institute of Environmental Design, India, where he was a gold medalist for his class, Shailendra practiced as an architect in his native country for five years. He then received a Master in Suburb & Town Design from University of Miami.
Shailendra is currently the Urban Design Director for Miami-Dade County’s Department of Planning & Zoning since past twenty years. He has spearheaded numerous design initiatives including neighborhood planning workshops that help create master plans for future development. Directly involved in design initiatives and master planning of over forty towns and neighborhoods, Shailendra has also been the keynote speaker at various institutions in South Florida. He is known for his hand-drawn renderings of architectural projects that help visualize plans and design concepts.
Shailendra has taught graphics and served as a design critique for student presentations at the School of Architecture, University of Miami.
A Floridian ever since moving from India more than twenty-five years ago, Shailendra currently resides in Miami.