Just before the festival of Diwali my friend Meenia asked if I could design a lantern for her. The request was for a Diwali candle cover but I'm a Canadian who's background is Scottish and Irish and quite frankly, though I had heard of Diwali, I didn't know much about it but it certainly sounded like fun and looked like a blast.
Meenia kindly sent me some photos of the flavour of what she was hoping for. She sent me photos of Mehndi designs, henna tattoos, and of Ganesha a Hindi deity.
There is so much variety and the tradition is so strong graphically speaking her pictures really gave me an idea of the look she was going for. But want I really want to emphasize here is that for me, this was a design challenge like any of my other clients. I didn't even know why she wanted a lantern.
I have learned a bit about this amazing festival... and am learning even more about the variations in tradition.... You can find out more in my blog posts.
This year I have re-visited the design - now with more light! No seriously.... Many of the details have been enlarged so the weeding process is easier and yes, the bi-product of that is more glowing light flowing from the lanterns. And that's the basic story.
