SOAS

Kagbeni Monastery,
Shrine Display Guide

An accessible interpretation tool using illustration to make spatial and cultural knowledge easier to navigate across languages.

Information Design, Illustration, Layout

Mountain landscape with a temple in the foreground, decorated with prayer flags, mountains in the background, and a clear blue sky.
Mountain landscape with a temple in the foreground, decorated with prayer flags, mountains in the background, and a clear blue sky.

The brief called for an accessibility-led approach: a tool that could communicate complex spatial and cultural information to any visitor, regardless of language or prior knowledge.

Interior of a Tibetan Buddhist temple with a golden Buddha statue at the center, colorful prayer flags, and traditional drums and masks decorating the space.
A shrine inside a monastery with a Buddha statue, surrounded by various Buddhist artifacts. To the left, a Nepalese Buddhist flag with vertical red, yellow, white, orange, and blue stripes. To the right, color swatches labeled with font types: Tenez, Akkurat Pro, and Tibetan. The background is beige.

I developed an illustrative system with a clear visual hierarchy, translating dense, layered shrine displays into flat, numbered illustrations that mirror the arrangement of each physical space. Typography, colour, and pattern were drawn directly from the monastery's own visual language: the Nepalese Buddhist flag, the shrine's palette, and a dedicated Tibetan typeface for authenticity alongside the headline and body fonts.

Photo of a golden seated Buddha statue with a halo, flanked by smaller statues, inside a decorated temple. Illustration of a Buddha figure with labeled parts and decorative elements.
Photo of various Buddha statues in different sizes and colors, displayed on shelves and a table in a room. The right side shows a labeled silhouette diagram of Buddha statues in different postures and sizes, numbered for identification.
Open book with text about Buddha Maitreya and accompanying illustration showing the silhouettes of a Buddha figure and smaller figures above, all in yellow and red, against a white background on a dark wooden surface.
Open book with text about Buddha Maitreya and accompanying illustration showing the silhouettes of a Buddha figure and smaller figures above, all in yellow and red, against a white background on a dark wooden surface.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Open book showing illustrations of Buddha statues and descriptions about Buddha Shakyamuni, with text about historical context and timeline dates.
Photos of two Buddhist shrine statues displayed at the Kagbeni Monastery shrine exhibit.

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Yoko Ono's Meltdown souvenir guide design: embossed book, red title spread, handwritten visitor wish notes, and red event listings pages.

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