swarpeti by Pratyush Gupta from india
designer's own words:
Children often see Indian classical music as something boring, uninspiring and meant for grown-ups. Swarpeti breaks this image and takes children on a magical journey to understand and engage with Indian classical music, through an amalgamation of visuals, sound, touch and light.
Swarpeti brings together the different concepts in Hindustani music through two pop-up books, which follow the story of Kaga, a curious little crow, as he goes on a quest to uncover the secrets of the swars (notes) and the raags (scales), to achieve his ultimate dream of singing like Tansen - The great Indian musician.
This project is a follow up of my infographic - Raag Rang (http://visual.ly/raag-rang). The purpose of both these projects is to simplify Indian classical music and to bring back some of its magic, which has been lost through the ages due to old and outdated teaching methods. Swarpeti has been conceptualised, designed and executed over a period of 4 months as a part of my diploma project at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology
Visuals from the first book – Masters of The Seven Swars
The swars and raags are personified as different characters who help kaga through his journey. The pop-ups illuminate to reveal the colour of each swar (ref: http://visual.ly/raag-rang)
Each of the characters takes kaga through a quest to help him understand music better. A Swar seeti or a pitch pipe lets children play all the 12 swars in an octave, so that they hear the notes while they read about them.
Visuals from the second book – Masters of The Six Raags