The story behind Lumanti.com
{ This is a repost taken from Lumanti’s blog. http://www.lumanti.com/the-story-behind-lumanti/ }
The year that was …
Two years back , those were my exciting days of working as a web-designer. Being a self-taught designer, I was very much obsessed to learning new design stuffs and watching the world’s trend in web design. And I was falling in love with vector illustration as well.
We designers used to surf internet and follow international web designers’ works. There weren’t much Nepali designers we knew, or whose works we could see/follow. But deep down I was sure that there were many Nepali designers out there who were passionate and obsessed to web/graphic design, who were capable of creating stuffs that could compete with the international designs.
The idea
I don’t have to recite here that Nepal is undoubtedly rich in arts & culture. We grew in cities where there are more temples than houses and those temples are decorated with amazingly carved patterns & designs. I thought, why can’t we put the same beauty of our original arts and culture in our graphic & web design?
So that was the main idea. To make an online portal where Nepali designers can share their designs which are influenced by Nepal.
I had no concrete plan on what exactly I was going to do, what exactly was my target. I just wanted to build a community of Nepali creative people. So I decided to make artworks that represents Nepali culture and to post them online as a free resource.
Get, Set, Go …
Then to get started I needed:
- A name
- A tagline
- A logo
- A website
The Name
I wanted a short & catchy name. I searched many Nepali words but most of the words didn’t have a domain available. Finally I found a Newari word “Lumanti” which also has an available domain name “lumanti.com”.
So, I got the name, Lumanti. The word is not much used in our daily life, so it’s got a fresh tone too.
The Tagline
And making a tagline was the easier one, “Showcasing a creative Nepal”, Simple and straight forward.
The Logo Object
Next, the logo. For logo too, I wanted something totally Nepali. I decided to take any typical object that can instantly represent Nepal. For inspiration, I walked around temples, I looked pictures of gods/goddess, I surfed sites & articles related to Nepali culture & tradition. After weeks of brainstorming, I found this object, a traditional oil-lamp. These lamps were hanged outside the windows of houses by Nepali people since ancient time.
I searched internet for a good picture of the lamp, but the above image was the best image I could find. So, based on this image, I made a vector illustration.
And there it was, the logo.
The Logotype Font
The earlier version of logotype I made was based on the font “lelim”, and for the tagline I used handwriting styled font “doctor”.
- {Earliest version of the logo}
But after almost one year, I reworked on the logotype. This time I didn’t use a readymade font. Instead I created the fonts by customizing one of my favorite and one of the most beautiful calligraphic fonts in the world, a Newari font “Ranjana Lipi”.
- {Newari Font “Ranjana Lipi”}
- {The current logo}
The tagline is based on “Museo” font.
The website
I used wordpress cms for the website. It’s easier to maintain and is sufficient for the requirements of Lumanti till now.
{Earlier version of lumanti.com}
I used to maintain it in my free time from my work life, but now it’s a major project in my daily work routine.
Supports & Contributions
As I was a full-time web designer in a company, I had many problems to run the design blog smoothly, considering time schedules and financial situations. But I am really thankful to my friends, colleagues and my junior brothers who helped me in any ways they could.
I won’t be able to thank them enough for their moral support and encouragement including the designers who have been contributing their artworks.
- {Some published artworks from the earliest weeks of lumanti.com}
Lumanti at the moment
Today, after almost two years, though Lumanti may not has achieved its goals to the fullest, but it has been grown as a mature project. And through the journey of two years, I am lucky enough to build a team of amazingly talented and passionate young minds.
And personally I too have learned a lot. I had a dream to build a “Showcase of Creative Nepal”, but I had no specific plans and goals. Now, I have turned my dreams into goals.Now, I have vision and plans for Lumanti.
Some future plans
1. Regular Updates in Lumanti.com
2. Updating through a Facebook Fanpage [ http://facebook.com/lumanti.fb ]
3. Contests for Lumanti FB fanpage & Lumanti.com
4. A complete New Website
- We have started working out on a complete new website structure of Lumanti.com
- The next version of Lumanti.com will be a complete Users-focused Application.
- Customized profiles/portfolio gallery/groups/forums for Artists
Conclusion
Lumanti was an outcome of an amateur designer’s dream of building a community of Nepali designers. A small initiative has now grown as an ambitious project. With all support of our friends, colleagues & users, we as a team have built up enough confidence to pursue our commitment further.
We continuously look forward to your support, comments & feedbacks as we work hard on improvising Lumanti.com – showcasing a creative Nepal.
—————————————————————-
By: Suman Shrestha
