Who We Are

Sadhana and Vijay Ramchander started BluePencil Infodesign in Hyderabad, India, in 1993, equipped with a blue pencil, an eraser, a study table, a few printouts to edit, and a dream. Today, we have grown into a micro-enterprise, and are supported by a team of skilled editors, artists, typesetters and proofreaders.

The blue pencil is still a valued possession.

It has been a creative journey….Over the years, we have worked on a variety of publications and have had the opportunity to work with individuals and organizations in several countries. We are passionate about our work, and no publication leaves our office unless we are completely satisfied with it. Success, indeed, is the ability to go from one publication to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

If you live in Hyderabad or are visiting, we invite you to visit us at our home-office for an overview of our work. We also assure you a cup of good South Indian coffee.

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Sadhana Ramchander

Sadhana is a Science graduate with a Masters in Communication and Journalism. After writing for newspapers and magazines for a few years, she worked as Editor, Information Services, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, India. Setting up BluePencil was a step towards professional independence, creativity and new learning. Apart from writing and editing, design and computer skills have always been a passion, and BluePencil provided the right platform for all these and more. Sadhana has published four books: ‘Autorickshaw blues and other colours’, a collection of poems for children (2004), ‘Just look up…to see the magic in the trees around you’ (2011), ‘HydandSeek: A visual tribute to Hyderabad’ (2015), and ‘Orugallu to Warangal: Journeys Across Time‘ (2019). She is also an amateur naturalist and takes a keen interest in nature awareness initiatives for children and adults in Hyderabad.

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Vijay Ramchander

Vijay Ramchander trained as a French translator, having done his Masters in French from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and subsequently a diploma in Translation from the Institut Catholique, Paris. He worked for 15 years as French translator / Editor at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad.

Vijay’s passion is information design. Although not formally trained, he has learned on the job and has handled complex book layouts at BluePencil. A set of illustrated geography books for middle school children, and a series of Wire-O-bound agriculture field manuals with folding-out modules, are among his memorable edit-design-typeset assignments. Most recently, Vijay edited a three hundred-thousand-word manuscript on philosophy. In his spare time, Vijay is a keen DIY-er and loves tools. The Walter Mitty in him imagines himself as an engineer in the cab of the recently restored Union Pacific Big Boy 4014.

Where We Come From

This photo occupies pride of place at BluePencil. It is a constant reminder of where we came from.

Try spotting us in this photo, taken when our first boss Herbert L Thompson retired!

The Information Services division at ICRISAT was a great place to learn from perfectionist editors, in a highly competitive atmosphere, with every small mistake we made becoming a matter of great shame. Our grooming as editors happened here, and we learnt something about the creation of books and the publishing process from each of the people in the photo. We also had the opportunity to interact with scientists who came from all over the world.

In the pre-computer days of the 1980s, editors worked with pencils on printouts, and scientists answered queries manually – pen on paper! Those were also the pre-DTP days, and we saw books being laid out manually – pages were ‘built’ with typeset galleys physically cut and pasted, corrections were made with surgical precision, and after the mockup was good in all respects, the final pages would be sent to the camera room.

With the advent of desk top publishing, we saw the skilled artists leave their beautiful, large art tables and sit at computers, somewhat distraught and perplexed. We also saw the beginnings of the internet, and the many possibilities it began to unroll before us. Little did we then realize that our way of working would change forever!

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