Mahadev Ksheer Sagar

The address is printed inside the lid

Mahadev Ksheer Sagar is a mithai shop in Gomti Nagar Extension, not far from our own studio. They came in wanting boxes that could sit next to the big sweet-house names at a Lucknow wedding without looking like they borrowed anyone’s clothes.

The artwork is drawn around two motifs, a lotus on the outer wrap and a pavilion illustration on the lid. Traditional subjects, drawn fresh for this shop instead of lifted from a pattern library, so no other counter in the city carries the same box.

The detail we argue for on every mithai project is here too: the shop’s name and address printed inside the lid. Sweet boxes travel. They get handed across the city during Diwali and opened by people who have never heard of the shop. The person eating the kaju katli finds out exactly where it came from at the moment they like it most. Cheap to print, and it keeps working for years.