Vitthal and Varkari – The Story of Myths and Origin

This project studies the cult of Vithoba. It was made as a student project for my Master’s in Information Design at India’s main design college, the National Institute of Design.

From Wikipedia:

Vithoba, also known as Vi(t)thal(a) and Panduranga, is a Hindu deity predominantly worshipped in the Indian state of Maharashtra and Karnataka. He is generally considered as a manifestation of the god Vishnu, or his avatar Krishna.

The temple of Vithoba at Pandharpur is dedicated to Lord Krishna under the name of Vithoba or Viththala. It is one of the many places in India which attracts thousands of pilgrims every year. These pilgrims are referred to as Warkari, i.e. “those who perform the Wari. It is –

a sampradaya (religious movement) within the bhakti spiritual tradition of Hinduism, geographically associated with the Indian state of Maharashtra. Warkaris worship Vitthal (also known as Vithoba), the presiding deity of Pandharpur, regarded as a form of Krishna.

Shown here is my digital documentation made for an interactive kiosk, to be shown in the actual place of the cultural center. For the headlines, I used Fit (DJR, 2017) by David Jonathan Ross including Kimya Gandhi’s script extension Fit Devanagari (Mota Italic, 2022) for the text in Marathi. It’s combined with Helvetica Now (Monotype, 2019) for text.

See Behance for more images, including the prototype of that kiosk, which is super extensive and self-navigable.