Messages from the Wind

Publication Design
Role: Graphic Designer & Photographer
Year: 2019

Tibetan prayer flags are customarily widespread throughout our society yet so few of us truly understand, or even know the true depth of their meaning.This book is an experience for those willing to understand this ancient art of the Tibetan prayer flags and realize their incredibly deep identities.

> Location: Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh
> No. of pages: 62
> Dimensions: 8” x 5.5”
> Paper: 130 gsm + Hardbound

Stage 1: 
- Research on Tibetan Prayer Flags (primary + secondary)
- Content writing + Shortlisting photographs
- Sketching layout explorations
- Trial pagination

Stage 2: 
- Digital layout
- Printing the first dummy copy
- Making modifications
- Printing an actual size dummy copy
- Final adjustments
- Developing print-ready files

Stage 3: - Final Print
- Post-print additions of the flags and flags in the book
- Dust Jacket
Process
Two written scripts are used in Tibetan culture, one is engraved on the Mani stones and the other is engraved on the prayer wheels. In the book, the ‘Mani mantra’ is laser cut in both scripts giving it a tactile feel of being engraved.
The five colors are the most distinct parts of the Tibetan prayer flags after the printed mantras. So to give the reader a feel of an actual flag, it’s material and original colors, the individual flags are stitched together and made as a sleeve with the meanings of every color on the facing page.
The eight symbols of Buddhism are illustrated and described for a deeper understanding of their cultural principles. Thus, the unfolding of these flaps signifies the revelation of hidden meanings.
Some other pages from the book!
If there exists a tradition, there exists a story, a message from our collective history. What we do with the tradition depends entirely on the will of the people but as human beings, as creatures of memory it becomes our sole purpose to recognize and understand these traditions. For there may very well come a day when we won’t have the answers that justify those traditions, when without knowledge of it’s past we would no longer listen for the messages they carry for our present, leaving them to be nothing more than colorful embellishments.
A reflective pause...