The client need.
Mylapore Express, a beloved South Indian restaurant with a fiercely devoted following across the Bay Area, was opening a new location in Sunnyvale. The space had real promise but a practical challenge: the entrance and circulation wasn't clearly visible from the parking lot. Beyond wayfinding, the client wanted a place that responded to their brand identity and celebrated South Indian cultural identity. They wanted a space that could do what their food has always done: transport people home.
For many in the South Bay's South Indian community, a meal at Mylapore Express isn't just lunch. It's a return to roots, to a mother's kitchen, to the feeling of a culture that shaped them. The new location needed to hold that same emotional weight, not just on the plate the physical experience.
Mylapore Sunnyvale restaurant entry - BEFORE.
Mylapore Sunnyvale restaurant entry - AFTER.
The creative solution.
The answer came from Tamil architectural tradition. A thinnai is an elevated platform, bench, or verandah found at the entrance of traditional Tamil homes.
Working in collaboration with interior architect Sowmya Sudarsanam of Studio Asraya and Subash Chandrababu Seed Design Studio the mural wraps the entrance with a geometric, symmetrically framed composition that draws the eye from the parking lot and signals arrival clearly. Custom wood benches complete the thinnai to create a place to gather, wait for your table, and be transported back to India for a brief but powerful moment.
Traditional South Indian thinnai architectural reference.
Traditional South Indian thinnai architectural reference.
The cultural references.
The visual language was drawn from South Indian visual tradition. Culturally, Kolams are geometric line drawings made with rice flour at the doorstep each morning as an act of devotion, hospitality, and mindfulness. These form the foundation of the floor treatment and mural patterning. Other influences included: pongal paanai overflowing pot motifs, sacred brass and copper vessel forms, swirling botanicals, the bold high-contrast linework of ancient Hindu temple stone carvings and Tanjore art.
The warm terracotta and cream palette were also drawn from traditional Tamil architecture. One quietly local thread runs through it all: the California poppy was also woven into the South Indian botanical forms as a small gesture to Northern California.
The personal meaning.
This project carried particular personal meaning. As an artist married to a wonderful man from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, I came to this work not just as a designer but as someone who has sat with family in these spaces, learned kolam dot grids from a sister-in-law and watched a mother-in-law draw patterns by lamplight on Diwali. Bringing that living tradition into a public space that serves the South Bay's South Indian community felt like an immense privilege and responsibility, and one of the most memorable moments of my creative practice.
