Humble Raja

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Humble Raja

We are Reena and Bhavesh Mistry, two Gujarati Canadian illustrators with a fascination for culture. H

If you are curious to know what we’re working on, get in touch with us – we’d love to hear from you. Our journey began with Kings of India Playing Cards, a product that explores the greatest dynasties from Indian history. You can support us by sharing and liking what we’re up to, to help us spread the word.

03/17/2026

Some of the most interesting parts of being in India right now have nothing to do with making.
We’ve been spending time with artisans, observing processes, asking questions, and trying to understand the level of care behind work that often gets taken for granted.
Shell inlay is one of those crafts that reveals itself slowly, in the patience it demands and the precision it requires.
Not knowing where our learnings will lead has a beauty to it; it allows us to pause and focus on just paying attention.

03/08/2026

रानी — Rani — Queen.
A title history often remembers quietly.
But the queens we’ve been researching were anything but quiet — rulers, strategists, patrons of culture, and forces behind empires.
We’ve been slowly illustrating a few of their stories.
Happy International Women’s Day.
📷 credit:
Presenting process work for Queens of India at Cool Concept 9, hosted by

03/04/2026

An uncut sheet is the deck before it becomes playable.
The full collection of Forbidden Forest artwork, undivided.
24 of these still exist. When they're gone, they're gone.
Available exclusively at humbleraja.com

02/26/2026

Humble Raja is born from a desire to explore our South Asian cultural identity within a Western context. We bridge the gaps in cultural knowledge through design exploration, blending our passion for illustration with a deep fascination for our heritage.

Our contemporary artifacts are a dive into South Asian history, designed to bring culture to the table through stories, illustrations, and games. We wanted to create something unseen: a tangible and playful way for the past and the present to meet.

We create art meant to be touched, played with, and shared—because culture and history belong outside of museum walls.

Building a community was an unexpected gift. Your belief inspires us to keep diving deeper, asking more questions, and creating more. So, we’re bringing something new to the table, and we’re grateful you’re here to see it unfold.

Cheers,
Reena & Bhavesh

📷 Credit for the first image, taken when we spoke at Cool Concept 9 hosted by :

11/13/2025

A deep dive on hoopoes:

The hoopoe’s rich history in art extends from ancient Egyptian iconography to modern Indian miniature paintings, and continues to be a meaningful subject for modern and contemporary artists.
Its unique appearance and symbolic associations with wisdom, kingship, and survival contribute to its enduring presence in various artistic traditions across the globe.
Our carrom board design adds to this deep appreciation of the hoopoe and its powerful link to history and culture.
image credits:
1. Humble Raja Board for Carrom City Club (isolated Hoopoes)
2. Indian Miniature Painting of a Hoopoe - Silk Road Gallery
3. "The Concourse of the Birds", Folio 11r from a Mantiq al-Tayr (Language of the Birds) - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
4. Hoopoe on a Citrus Tree Branch - Cleveland Museum of Art
5. Recto [Album leaf.] A hoopoe and urdu inscription. Painted in gouache on paper. According to register, folio 39. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
These images are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

10/20/2025

Last year we collaborated with Canada Post
and Nothing Design Studio to create the first Diwali stamp for Canada Post that was designed and illustrated by South Asians.

It will always be a dear project to our hearts since we were able to capture the warmth we experience celebrating Diwali and transform it into a stamp that was shared across the world.

Canada Post provided a thoughtful brief that was rooted in the celebration of dhanteras and Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. The process of creating the stamp involved multiple concepts that we loved, but only one made the cut.

So when Canada post asked us to illustrate a spread for their 2024 collection book, we were so happy to revisit this concept for the stamp and bring it to life as a full page illustration.

Wishing you all a joyous Diwali from our family to yours. Here's to a peaceful and prosperous new year ✨

10/20/2025

Last year we collaborated with
and to create the first Diwali stamp for Canada Post that was designed and illustrated by South Asians. It will always be a dear project to our hearts since we grew up celebrating Diwali with our family and friends, hearing the stories and participating in the rituals of lighting diwa around our homes.

Canada Post provided a thoughtful brief that was rooted in the celebration of dhanteras and Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. The process of creating the stamp involved multiple concepts that we loved, but only one made the cut.

So when Canada post asked us to illustrate a spread for their 2024 collection book, we were so happy to revisit this concept for the stamp and bring it to life as a full page illustration.

Wishing you all a joyous Diwali from our family to yours. Here's to a peaceful and prosperous new year ✨

10/17/2025

The League of Letters takes over on Oct 22nd.

League of Letters is a knockout hand-lettering tournament for lettering lovers, type nerds, and any creative that believes they can draw the better letter under pressure.

I'm honoured to be a host of this epic typography tournament hosted by the fabulous Margot of (< get tickets here)

It feels more fair to judge if I tried it myself, (and I can't imagine doing it under pressure so kudos to all of the contenders stepping to the stage!) so here's a Devanagari script remix of the League of Letters post by

11/05/2024

We're documenting all of the places our Canada Post Diwali stamps go. If you've recieved mail with one of these stamps, add your photo to the collection here!

🪷✉️🪷

x x

10/29/2024

🪷 This past week, Canada Post unveiled a new stamp celebrating Diwali, that we designed in collaboration with Rahul Bhogal, Director of Nothing Design Studio.
The design process at Canada Post is meticulous, involving the selection of artists who demonstrate exceptional skill in graphic arts and illustration. This stamp release includes 360,000 Permanent™ stamps, alongside booklets and Official First Day Covers.
The stamp was designed to be inclusive to the communities that celebrate Diwali, including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains, and features traditions such as lighting diyas and inviting Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, into homes. The stamp beautifully captures this ritual by illustrating three of Lakshmi's hands: one showering coins, another holding a lotus, and the third holding a diya.
We feel grateful to have been part of this project, and honoured to know these stamps are being used across the country to connect loved ones this Diwali.
🪷
🙏🏽

Address

Toronto, ON

Website

http://www.humbleraja.com/

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