Phool is an Indian biomaterials social-enterprise that reached out to us in 2019, wanting to create stationery items & a calendar using seeded-paper. We worked on a lot of concepts that kept the ethos of the brand, would bring in awareness of wildlife & require least materials to reproduce.
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The concept that went ahead was that of a desk-calendar where we celebrated River Ganga with all forms of aquatic wildlife (Microbes to mammals). We illustrated the wildlife in the Gond-art style. (I was inspired by the book gifted to me by Guru 'Gangadharan Menon' Sir - called Beasts of India, published by Tara Books, which had animals illustrated in folks arts from various Indian states. Though Gondh is not from Ganga's banks, its style caught my eye for the outline-detailed-style we were envisioning.) Like most of our other projects we consciously used minimal elements & layouts to use least amounts of printing ink in production. The yellow-orange-red-sun in our designs is inspired from sunrise of the Ganges and the minimalist sumi-e style of painting. We proposed the back of this calendar page be like a post card with more information & stats of the wildlife being featured. (Like most our projects, we never miss an opportunity to share some interesting facts about the wild-life species we are representing!). We added added an element of interactivity - when all the pages of the calendar were put side by side they formed River Ganga's map. We also brought in a factor of relatability by showing a 'alongside-human' size depiction (similar to what we see in Zoo's and museums!). The calendar pages was proposed to stand in a re-usable wooden-photo-frame.
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Concept, Print Design & Illustrations of Calendar Pages: Ashvini Menon, Vaijayanti Ajinkya, Nitya George (Ashvini Menon Visual Design Studio, Mumbai)
Product Cover Design: Phool
Special Thanks: Suruchi Sharma, Dr. Sasikumar Menon
Project Design Year: 2019
Product Release Year: 2024