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“Becoming a boat club captain was my childhood dream,” says art director-cum-designer, Jimmy Varghese, who has been working on a project commissioned by the Champakulam Boat Club in Alappuzha, Kerala.
Born and brought up in Alleppey, Jimmy had always taken an avid interest in boat races, which is a longstanding tradition in his home state.
“My grandfather’s house was the starting point of Moolam boat race, which is the oldest race in Kerala. So, my passion for the race is quite obvious.”
On being contacted for a logo design project by the Champakulam Boat Club in the Alappuzha district of Kerala, Jimmy was more than eager to take it up. From a very young age, he had been interested in exploring various aspects of designing.
“Since I was in the fifth standard, I had already started drawing tiles, borders, and illustrating the school’s handwritten magazines and journals. ”
He believes that any design should reflect a singular or multiple emotions.
“I like to infuse a weird sense of humour to my work. Even though most of the time I am the only person who is laughing.”, he jokes.
For the snake boat project, he has created a logo which is an ultra-minimal rendition of a snake boat combined with the Malayalam alphabet, ‘Cha’, the first letter of the snake boat and the village, Champakulam. The two lines on the logo represent the river Pampa and the boat club rivalry between the two villages on both sides of the river.
The Champakulam Boat Race, which is also known as ‘Moolam Vallamkali’ in Kerala goes back centuries in time. It is a spectacular snake boat race that takes place on Pampa River on the day of the ‘moolam’, in accordance with the Malayalam month of Midhunam. The day is considered especially sacred because on this day centuries ago, the deity at the Ambalappuzha Sree Krishna Temple was installed.
According to a legend, as alluded to in an article by Charu Chowdhary, “ the king of Chempakasseri – Raja Devanarayana, followed the instructions of his royal priest and erected a temple in his kingdom. However, just before the installation of the idol, he was told that it was inauspicious. The king then brought another idol of Sree Krishna from Karikulam Temple in Kurichi, which, according to the legends, was handed over to Arjuna by Lord Krishna himself. On his way back, the king made a stop at Champakulam. The next morning, he saw thousands of colourful boats assembled at the site, in order to honour the sacred event and to escort the idol home. It is this scene that is replicated every year and has come to be known as Champakulam Boat Race.”
Unfortunately, owing to the nationwide lockdown and social distancing protocols issued by the government this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the age-old tradition of Kerala is probably going to be stalled for the time being.
You can check out more of his work here.
You can check out his Instagram here.
Born in the backwaters of Kerala, Jimmy is currently plying his trade at Weiden+Kennedy. Combining music inspirations and Godardian influences in everything he lays hands on, he is on a relentless pursuit against visual pollution. ‘Everything doesn’t need to look beautiful’ is his design philosophy and Comic Sans is his logotype.
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