Manadala Book Research

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The Mandala Book - Patterns of the Universe

Lori Bailey

I did a bit of research into existing mandala books. I came across various books, which looked at mandalas and found there was no consistent design style, most of the publications have a very hand crafted aesthetic, which represents the nature of art form. However this approach doesn't really grab your attention. The publication above is quite eye catching and I feel appeals to a wider target market as apposed to the versions you can see below. The designer has used natural examples which highlight the colour spectrum usually used when creating your own mandalas which i think helps to draw the consumer in. 

 

The Mandala Workbook - A creative Guide to 

Self Exploration, Balance and Well-being 

Susanne Fincher

The book above is really poor design, It emphasizes the hands on approach to creating the mandalas but I don't really think it grabs the viewers attention and reminds me of a terrible dated text book you would get in R.E The type really does nothing for design either, nothing really stands out that well. I think this book may appeal to a few people. But I am aiming to target this at a wider audience of people who maybe don't already have an interest in this kind of thing. So in order to grab the audiences attention I will have to produce something much more eye catching which will make the user want to engage with it.

 

Creating Mandalas - Susanne Fincher

Here is another book by the same author, Once again quite plain and text book like, I have found that most publications on this topic tend to have really poor designs which arn't that appealing to a wider audience.

Mandala: Spiritual Visions of our Ancient Self

Peter Patrick Barreda 

This publication has a much nicer design and doesn't look as tacky as the other designs. Its quite natural and earthy which relates to the natural process of creating mandalas. Its quite authentic and traditional which I also like. This style of design suits the product much better.

Mandala Colouring Book

Thaneeya McArdie

This book seems to be aimed at a much younger audience, the fact that it is a colouring book probably suggests this too. Once again I feel that this approach isn't the best option. And I am wanting to produce something more traditional which appeals to a wider audience. My aim is to try encourage people with no interest to give it ago. In order to do this I will have to produce some interesting packaging which makes the user want to get involved.
 

Mandala

Judith Cornell

Here you can see another example, As much as I like the image, I think it makes the publication look like some random text book for software. Pretty much the majority of books I found on mandalas looked prettty terrible. I am confident I can think of some interesting ways to make the publication appeal to a larger bracket of people.