Print design | Publication | Art direction | Visual communication design
Keywords:
Coffee table book, family chronicle, Africa, India
An African Odyssey is a coffee table format publication for the Somabhai family of Zimbabwe that documents and commemorates the last 100 years, since 1919, when the young Somabhai Patel left Gujarat in India and travelled alone to Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, in Africa.
The book looks at the following years with his work, his growing family and his success as a businessman and an important figure in the Gujarati community in Rhodesia at the time.
Today, the descendants of Somabhai live across the globe and the book has been a means to document and share the experience of living in Africa and India with the younger generations of the family.
We were approached to design the book, researched and written by Somabhai’s grandchildren, Vikram Patel and Alpita Patel, in a rich and dynamic way with various graphic elements such as the family tree, 100-year family timeline, photo sections, bio-pages, etc. to chart the 100 year history of the family.
We designed icons to represent the major family events that occurred in the last hundred years, such as births, deaths and marriages, which allowed us to make a complex timeline of events which was easy to read.
The family tree was designed as a ‘baobab’ tree, familiar and loved by the older generations of the family to had seen the tree throughout their time in Africa. The book cover features a beautiful ‘jacaranda’ tree, another familiar site in Zimbabwe.
The book was launched in Dharmaj, the hometown of Somabhai in India, at the beautiful Indo-Saracenic house of the family, along with an exhibition about the life of Somabhai’s wife, Chanchalben.
Client — Patel Family
Scope:
Publication design
Print design
Infographic design
Team:
Design — Mridul Mitra, Rachita Sareen
Client —
Scope:
Publication design
Print design
Infographic design
Team:
Design — Mridul Mitra, Rachita Sareen