Gandhi Vatika Museum
(In association with Lokus Designs)
Visual Strategy to enhance storytelling for large spaces and complex narratives
Information Design | Museum
Gandhi Vatika is an interactive and participative museum that enables the visitor to experience the life of The Father of Nation. It is designed to bring forth Gandhiji’s Philosophy - how it shaped the freedom struggle and also its relevance in today’s time. The mega-narrative needed a structured visual direction & Information design.
Mapping the emotional journey through colours
The idea was to give ‘Emotion’ an equal if not more importance than ‘Information’. The exhibition narrative was mapped with emotions that Gandhiji may have gone through and subtly pass those on to the viewer thorough colours.
‘Sut’ (Hindi)- A conceptual thread that connects the story
The entire exhibition is massive and spans 3 levels with multiple narratives, loads of information and many moods. ‘Sut-The thread’ was introduced as a visual element that binds the exhibition. It helped build continuity and consistency while also aligning with Bapu’s Philosophy of Self-reliance and Charkha.
Establishing a design system
Established a common anatomy of a panel considering the space, reading distance and cognitive capabilities of an average viewer.
Established template panels according to the objective of each panel - Informative, Timelines, Emotional impact and so on.
Life size Images or at times larger were used to create impact and immersive-ness.
Breaking down the Information
The exhibition has more than a thousand panels and each panel has a lot of information.
The information on each panel was broken in small snippets to provide the highlights to ease the cognitive load and help the viewer to be in the story.
Impact
Ease of navigability through a complex narrative due to visual continuity
A cohesive and structured appeal to Information to ease readability
Created emotional connect through colours and image handling
Design system helped streamline design decisions and production feasibility