Patel Bhowmi Kiranbhai

IR2022

Gaatha - A thread of narratives

'Gaatha' is a Sanskrit word which means 'a saga'. The studio was like a saga, a long story which consists a thread of different narratives. These narratives consist a story book on a profile, exploration of a traditional Indian craft, an ethnographic research leading to narrative maps, designing a game, writing and illustrating a graphic novel. Inspecting, scanning, listening, analyzing, understanding, articulating, visualizing, illustrating, creating and forming stories were ten key learnings  from this saga of the studio. It helped me to create stories and represent them in indulging, engaging and influencing ways of narratives.  

Graphic novel:
https://www.flipsnack.com/Bhowmi/the-artisan-from-the-cat-s-eye.html
Portfolio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZCG4FMIPicixl_5lqQu5W6jWto7kLtOr/view?usp=sharing


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The thread of narratives started by creating a story book. "The Crazy Duo" is a story based upon childhood memories of two best friends Dhvani and Aashka. The story book was designed as an origami book and it was like a diamond folded book. The story revolves around three funny and innocent incidents of two little girls.

Scene 1 : Their parents knowing about their friendship on Aashka’s first birthday. Scene 2 : Two little friends experimenting with deadly combinations of things in kitchen. Scene 3 : The innocent emotions leading to memorable tragedies with the train journey.

The next stage was to study and explore traditional Indian crafts. This is a mimic of famous Madhubani painting from Mithila region, Bihar. "Kohbar" is one of the style of Madhubani painting and it was originally created by artist Padma Shri Sita Devi.

From here, the thread of narratives continued with only Gundiyali narratives. Gundiyali village is located 7 kms away from Mandvi, Kutch. The narratives were collected from this village which is famous for its terracotta products and 'Kumbhar Fadyu' is an area in this small village where Kumbhar families live and make different types of products from Gundiyali mitti. The map is about one of the family from Kumbhar Fadyu. The map shows the journey from childhood to adulthood of Salim Kumbhar.

Taking further the narratives and crafts, a puzzle solving game was designed keeping Gundiyali as a base. "Kumbhyali" was named after Gundiyali where Gundi was replaced with Kumbh which means jumbled up. The packaging of the game was done like an album where four sides have transparent pockets for puzzles and the booklet and cards come at the centre. The four sides get wrap up at the centre as a thick packet.

A booklet was designed as a trifold pamphlet which consists game rules and how to play the game. The person has to pick a card and the product which comes on the card, he/she needs to solve that product by finding and forming puzzle in a given time.

Puzzles and cards to play the game

By writing and illustrating a graphic novel, the last knot to the thread of narratives were tied. "The artisan from the cat's eye" is a story based upon life of Faizan, son of Salim Kasambhai. The story is narrated by Faizan's best friend Sheeru, a cat.

The story revolves around how Sheeru and pots helped, guided and supported Faizan when he was a kid to till he achieved his dreams listening to his parent's advice and following his soul.

Few glimpse from the graphic novel