, Turkey

, India

Typography Day 2011 started with extreme energy and a huge amount of excitement as students, visitors, delegates and the media amalgamated at the auditorium of National Institute of Design, Paldi campus to eagerly await the open-ing of the conference.

The happiness, joy and passion shared by typographers which included students as well as stal-warts in the field of typography found expression at the beginning of the conference. The typo team 2011 from NID were up early and ready to assist all the visitors with their queries, passing them con-ference kits filled with goodies and guiding them to the venue of the presentations.

Professor G.V. Sreekumar’s in-spiring talk and his memories of remembering Prof. R.K. Joshi gave the conference a warm start. His vision of designing a curricu-lum for the future was appreci-ated by the design educators om-nipresent in the crowd. Enriching panel discussions and inquisitive students asking their doubts and queries added a rich flavor to the conference and made it more in-teractive. Professor Mahendra Patel’s constant inputs generated lots of energy among the visi-tors. The international speakers shared their unique experiences with type design and broadened

our outlook towards typogra-phy across Nations. The student speakers built an inspiring atmos-phere for all the students in the crowd who dream of becoming future typographers.

The creation of this newsletter ‘Type Hype’ was exciting, with mind boggling deadlines and live content generation throughout the event. The challenge of the newsletter to be printed over-night and available for distribu-tion next morning was made pos-sible by the staff of printing labs at NID who worked extra hard to make this happen. Also, live video screening of the conference across all the NID campuses in-cluding Bangalore and Gandhina-gar added a new dimension to this event where knowledge could be shared across physical limitations of a venue.

An interesting argument that seems to emerge out of all the gripping discussions is whether designers must design for a more general platform or whether the design must cater to the lo-cal context. For multi-cultural countries, with a vast variety of cultures, subcultures and various influences, it is an issue to form a single identity. We, in India have at some point or the other faced a situation where we have been unable to form a single ‘ Indian’

identity that describes us com-pletely. A lot of work showcased typeface and letter designs in-spired by a very local context and a few took inspiration from his-tory. It was also very interesting to see designers design typefaces in scripts other than their own native languages, how they found their own ways to adapt them-selves to scripts that were new to them, and how they looked at the visual appeal of letter forms which are merely a set of shapes put together. A new concept of 3D typography and anaglyph ty-pography interested everyone.

A warm thank you to all the peo-ple who helped in organizing this conference which include the faculty, students, and administra-tion of National Institute of De-sign, Ahmedabad and Industrial Design Centre, I. I.T Mumbai. Also the supporting institutes India Design Association and Aksharaya teams for keeping our energies running. We sincerely thank Font Lab for sponsoring the event and helping students redis-cover their love for typography.

Today 11 exciting workshops are being offered. It is time to explore all our thinking, learnings and skills. Hoping the last day of this conference is as memorable for all of you as it has been for Team Typo at NID.

Language is the dress of thought. That being the case typography can be viewed as one of the swatches of fabric from with the dress is made.

From the X-rays it's clear that you have a terminal illness... I know how it feels.

Comic Types By Reuben & Rahul Typography Day 2 Through the eyes of Turmeric Design

Crossword Answers

Answers to the crossword published on the first edition of Type Hype, distributed to you on the first day of Typography Day 2011. Check to see if you managed a full score.

I fell in with typography an hour ago.Srishti Dutta Roy (The youngest participant of Typography Day 2011)

Dan RhatiganType/Graphic Designer, London

Proofreading symbols or marks are shorthand notations through which the proofreader tells the compositor what changes to make to a proof sheet,, galley or blue line before publication. They differ from editing marks and should not be confused although some are similar or even the same. Editing isa different proc-ess than proofing. A proofreader is a person who is supposed to leave his standard proofreading marks as he proceeds through the documents. These are The cor-rection proofreader marks that one makes on the document to point out a mistake and suggest a correction. Some follow the gen-eral trend, others create their own trend. Likewise, some proofread-ers find it easy to work accord-ing to the standard norms; while many others find it extremely dif-ficult to cope with the standard symbolism of proofreading. The proofreaders marks provide con-sistency and help avoid miscom-munication. Whether sharing work with others or proofing one’s own work, proper use of proofreaders' marks saves time and frustration. To make things easy, most of the compa-nies now a days have their own customized set of proofreader marks. These marks are a com-bination of shapes and letters to mark a certain type of error in the document. Due to this trend of marking, all the documents given for proofreading are dou-ble spaced so that there is enough space for the marks. Some of the standard marks include a circle with ‘sp’ in it around a number written in digits which had to be in spellings, a circle with ‘cap’ written in it indicating that the nearby underlined letter or word is to be written in capital, a line from a word to a space between two words depicting that the word had to be there and many more. With time a proofreader gets accustomed to the mark-ing system and becomes expert

Deciding the subject or theme of the conference: After infinite cups of chai and innumerable scribbles and brain boggling deadlines, the theme of the conference was decided to be typography and expression. But expressing what? Our emotions? Our Creations? Or the culturally rich topic of the Indian expres-sion? The biggest challenge is the thin, narrow, teeny line of not hurting the sentiments of a huge democracy like India. The Indian expression is usually portrayed as a western concept wherein cer-tain visual forms like the autos, cabs, trucks, colour, chaos and cows are accentuated. Finding letters inspired from such forms would be interesting. Thus the theme was decided. So a theme that feels right from that little corner space of your heart…just freeze on it.

Inviting Speakers and organizing Workshops:Are there enough typographers around? That is the first ques-tion that arose but got poofed

we are designers and have to be functional, we thought of giving something innovative and edu-cative. So the visitors were given mementos to take away which had a hand painted design say-ing ‘Dhanyavad’ meaning ‘Thank You’. It was a small way to show our respect to the dying art of street painters. If you don’t thank people…then no conference can happen. It’s simple.So be warm and grateful to peo-ple around you. A good confer-ence can only happen with a very hardworking team. Distributing 5-Stars in the middle of the night when hunger is taking over the mind makes a lot of difference. So smile and say thank you…always!

* These are experiences of Team Typo through the two months they spent working on the organisation of Typog-raphy Day 2011. And as you might have guessed it's not meant to be seri-ously.

in proofreading. The proofread-er while proofing a document doesn’t cut and rewrite the whole thing, making the piece of paper illegible. Rather he uses a prede-fined standard set of proofread-ers symbols to mark certain type of errors in the document. These symbols are universally accepted and are standard unless speci-fied by a particular organization. Some large companies have their own requirements and limitations so they don’t use the standard set of proofread symbols. They have their own set of symbols to mark errors. Nearly all over the world, proofreaders use red pen to mark symbols corrections because it is contrasting and clearly visible to the reader. In the digital age, where proofreading is done on computers these symbols are not of much help since editing of the document is possible without any fuss, on the document; since no paper is involved. Yet, at some places, symbols are used by even if they working on computers.

Some of the common proof read-ing symbols include an insertion symbol where a small carrot or arrow is marked at the place where a letter or a word is miss-ing and the letter or the word is written above the line. The sym-bol to delete a particular word or letter is a simple straight line cut-ting the word or letter. A special symbol resembling a mirror of P is used to mark a change in para-graph. There are various other symbols, as well.

It is quite clear that the job of a proofreader demands a pen to be used since typing proofread symbols may not be possible for all kinds of symbols. A proofread copy looks like a pattern of red and blue or black or whatever ink has been used in the proof. The more there is red color on proof copy, it indicates there were more errors in the proof.

Proof Reading

Organising a Conference in 5 Easy stepsbranding was merely not attach-ing a sticker of the same logo to things but building a unique iden-tity and a system. So we took scis-sors and CUT, SNIP, CUT paper and the logo was born.

RegistrationFor this step you need to know Microsoft Excel really well. Ohh…the mac users text edit is a must. Dealing with calls, good inter-personal skills, being firm…(at times), being soft and being dip-lomatic are a MUST! The money part is another whole thing. If sponsors are not there, charging a bomb to cover the costs is always advisable and voila the confer-ence can happen beautifully! But really having patience is the key idea of this stage and resolving conflicts fast, super fast is a must!

Collectibles, Freebies and ThanksgivingThe golden rule of any good con-ference is to give a lot of freebies, and stuff that evokes sweet mem-ories about the event but at NID we thought a little bit more. Since

Try proof-reading this article!

the moment one sat to research on them. That is a myth! There were so many that it was difficult to narrow down on them. The usual image of a type designer is usually that of an introvert sit-ting in a corner of a studio or lab with large wooden tables and laptops becoming sensitive to the width of the letters and the type anatomies. This image completely proved to be wrong at the confer-ence when we came across the tattoos of Dan Rhatigan. So invit-ing speakers from all across the globe was a challenge but it was a great eye opener that so many typographers exist in their unique styles breaking the stereotyped myth.

Branding:Branding? What? Not again? Why does everything have to be branded? Starting from the shampoos we use or the shoes we wear, everything is a brand. “Let this conference be unique”- our hearts screamed out for this aspect. Yet we decided to brand it as while we did it, we realized

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* Source Shirish Bhai, Co-ordinator, NID Printing Labs

CHUKKI: DERIVING KANNADA TYPE FORMS FOR THE WEBSanjay Basavaraju Guide: Suresh Immanuel

Featured Student Project Sanjay Basavaraju

Kohinoor super type family

Over 35 million people world-wide speak the language, Kanna-da. Sanjay Basavaraju, a Graphic design alumnus of NID is one of them. Kannada’s first written record can be traced to 230 BC. The Kan-nada script has entered the Web medium. Recently, while groups such as Yahoo, Google, Micro-soft, and AOL, are looking at local content as the solution to reach out to specific user groups, there isn’t any Kannada type designed for the web. Readability is the main concern of text appearing in large volumes on the screen. Inconsistency in intensity, im-proper leading, hinting a font for web originally designed for print etc are some issues that make the letterforms illegible and make them look like lumps of pixels put together.Sanjay clearly recalls his mother commenting on how it was un-comfortable to read news on Ya-hoo Kannada, online, because the text looked rough and it seemed as if they were still working on the page.It was this conversation with his mother that sparked off Sanjay’s interest in taking up Kannada typeface design that would at-tempt to resolve these issues as his classroom project. Under the guidance of Immanuel Suresh, he developed the font ‘Chukki’ by deriving the Kanna-da letter forms for the computer screen by decisively laying pixels.

Beyond good proportion and legibil-ity, the type form has to relate to the aesthetic forms in our mind.

The Kannada script being curvy, right decisions needed to be tak-en when the forms were derived on the pixel grid. After enough analysis of the size of the Kan-nada typeface used on the Web, he concluded that only with 7 pixels x-height, one would be able to do justice to the Kannada let-terforms. So ‘Chukki’ is designed in 7-pixel x-height. It requires less leading and looks more com-pact. A lot more text can be fit into the column. ‘7 Pixel’ is also an ideal size for any other de-vices with lesser resolution and smaller screens such as a hand held phone. According to him, it would be an irrational decision to actually create weights at this size as Indic scripts can’t be visualized in bold or italics and the concept of weight system for the Web needs to be relooked at.Sanjay believes that, when a type is designed, two main aspects— legibility and elegance, should be looked at.

Outline of selected freehand forms

Geometric construction of a character

Extraction of pixel forms

So he also did an exercise in tak-ing all the base forms figuring out metaphors for them in an attempt to relate them to images and not sounds. He is also in the process of designing the hint-able version of ‘Chukki’ called ‘Gaganachukki’(Beyond the Ob-jectiveThrough ‘Chukki’, he says, “we would be able to challenge the Language and the Medium to co-exist.” Chukki, at the mo-ment, stands not just as a bitmap Kannada typeface, but also as a system which can be applied to derive any forms for the Web. Chukki is a small contribution from a design student to the Indic type designers’ community. The research process can be followed at www.chukki.wordpress.com.Sanjay has also written a book— Making Sense of Design.Working with Amazon Kindle is one of his dream projects which he feels is an area having tremendousopportunity for Indic typeface

designers. He runs Avalokana, an independent publishing firm based out of Ahmedabad, with his partner Armeen Kapadia.

We have often spotted Satya Rajpurohit, co-founder of the Indian Type Foundry (ITF) in and around the campus of NID of whom he is an alumnus. Last week, we cornered him at the Chai gate and bombarded him with questions which he readily agreed to answer. For all students and type enthusiasts, Type hype shares with you some excerpts from our conver-sation with the guy who in such a short span of time, took Indian Typography to a new level.

TypeHype: Would you explain how Type design is different from other aspects of typography?Satya: Type design is more of a craft. It is a lengthy process of de-signing typefaces. While the initial conceptualization would amount to as little as 10% of the project, the remaining 90% requires one to work on it patiently and tirelessly. It can become boring after a few weeks, when all the creative thinking is done, but I really enjoy the process. Typography, on the other hand, is to design layouts or compositions by using these typefaces. It focuses on the arrangement and appearance of matter printed using type. Simply put, one is about creating tools and the other about using them.

TypeHype: Having worked on a variety of Indic fonts, how im-portant according to you, is it to know the language along with the script before designing a typeface?Satya: While mastery over the spoken language is not necessary, it is important for a type designer to study the forms of a new script and get familiarized to word formation structures peculiar to the script in order to be comfortable in writing it.

TypeHype: So, how many Indian scripts do you know?Satya: It takes me around 2-3 months to learn a new script. I am quite comfortable with Gujarati and Devanagari, and can read-and-write Bengali and Gurmukhi scripts. I had a tough time learning Tamil for designing a typeface for my diploma project. But now that I am learning Kannada, Tamil seems much easier as it does not have too many characters as in Kannada.

TypeHype: Can you share some insights with students interested in type design?Satya: While most design institutes here have typography as a subject, there is not much focus on type design in particular. Also, very little work is done in the area of Indian scripts, meaning there are no defined principles for designing regional scripts. Your mother tongue could possibly be as foreign to you as another. Indian scripts have hundreds of characters which make it a huge task for a beginner. I would recommend them to first study the basic principles of Latin type design and then apply them to design other scripts. Another thing to keep in mind is that type design is not about personal prefer-ences. Universal legibility and readability should always score higher while taking design decisions.

TypeHype: Could you share how things work at ITF? Satya: ITF basically follows two models i.e. designing retail fonts for our library and custom fonts that meet the requirement of specific clients. While I handle the designing part, my partner Peter Bilak, help me with other important activities like ITF promotion, lectures, workshops, articles and with Latin type design. Often people wonder how we coordinate in spite of us living in two different countries, but internet enables us to manage quite efficiently.

TypeHype: What are you currently working on and what would be your dream project?Satya: Presently, I am working on developing a custom typeface for a Kannada Newspaper. My dream project would be to develop a typeface family that extends to major Indian scripts plus Latin. Such typefaces would enable uniformity in visual language in multilingual design projects. The ITF typeface ‘Kohinoor Multiscript’ has released with its Devanagari, Latin and Tamil versions, and the Gujarati, Ben-gali and Gurmukhi versions are on their way. The plan for 'Kohinoor' is to make it the biggest typeface family ever created with support for 9 major Indian scripts and Latin.

TypeHype: It is an unfortunate reality that lots of people distort fonts and spread font piracy while type designers painstakingly create them. What do you suggest would make them more sensitive towards ethical use of type?Satya: Changing the mindset of people would be a huge task but we could try initiating a dialogue with them. While type designers cannot expect people to see type the way they do, awareness could be created by giving simple examples such as ‘Distorting a typeface would destroy its identity just like squeezing or stretching your photograph would’.

Favourite Typeface Serif: Trinité by Dutch type designer Bram de Does Sans: National by Kris Sowersby

Favourite Typeface Designer Adrian Frutiger &Robert Slimbach

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Type Hype CreditsPrinted and Published by Tarun Deep Girdher for Graphic Design discipline at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

Edited by Dhwani Shah and Mrinalini Sardar

Printed by Shirish Shah at NID Printing Labs, PaldiAhmedabad-380007.

Masthead Design by Akash Halankar

Closing note by Mrinalini Sardar and Dhwani Shah

Write up on Zuzana Licko compiled by Pallavi Apte and Lalith Prasad

Portrait of Zuzana Lickoby Poshika Singh

Write up on student projects compiled by Dhwani Shah

Proof Reading Article by Mrinalini Sardar and Dhwani Shah

Type Hype live ReportersMrinalini Sardar, Mohita Janbandhu and Asmina Shaikh

Type Hype live IllustratorAkash Halankar

Type Hype PhotographersAnurag Gautam, Naorem Singh, Amrit Pal Singh

Typo quote Illustration Abhisek Behera

Designed by Pragya Mishra andVinu Chaitanya

Printed on JK Natural Shade Map Litho 80gsm

Set in Warnock Pro & DinPrinted on Roland Parva IIB, 1964 Vintage using CTP (PS Plates)

Printed, gathered, folded at NID Printing Labs

Disclaimer: Any part of this publication and/or opinions expressed therein remain solely those of the author(s) and people duly copyrighted for reference. No content of this publication or opinions expressed therein bear responsibility to hurt public sentiments. It is for academic purpose only. The purpose of this newsletter is just to evoke the unending love for typography.

Behind The ScenesThis conference would not have been possible without the mas-sive effort and co-operation of the following

National Institute of Design Pradyumna Vyas Vijai Singh Katiyar Dr. Subir Das Siddharth Swaminarayan Viral Rajyaguru Dr. Vijaya Deshmukh

Industrial Design Centre Ravi Poovaiah Girish Dalvi G V Sreekumar

Aksharaya Santosh Kshirsagar Sarang Kulkarni

InDeAs Ajanta Sen

Font Lab Ted Harrison and his team

Print partners Shreedhar Printers Pvt. Ltd. Shrirang Cards Creation Siddhi Printech

Printing Lab Mr Shirish Shah Mr Bharat Suthar Mr Bharat Patel Mr Sudarshan Anija Mr G C Pal Mr Suresh Kuntmal Mr Manilal Someshwara Mr Hasmukh Prajapati Mr Hardik Sanghavi Mr Sachin Panchal

Auditorium Team Rohit Parmar Rahul Patel Sudhir Shah Jitendra Sagar

Rupesh Vyas, Bhaumik Nagar and the entire IT team

Meena Shah, Shambhu Paswan and team

Nikhil Mehta, Kapil Patel, Khoda Bhai and their team

Govind Bhai and HetChint

All Speakers, Session Modera-tors and Workshop Moderators

Entire Graphic Design team of Faculty, Students and Graduates.

See you at Typography Day 2012