About
Workshops with Design Students:
from Edinburgh to Warsaw to Jaipur
What is Typecraft?
The Typecraft Initiative, develops a range of display typefaces based on the rich crafts and tribal arts of indigenous communities. Our aim is to inspire craftspeople to engage with design and use the typefaces as a way to engage with new audiences and to make them aware of these crafts and the people behind them.
Typecraft Workshop
The Typecraft workshops aims to decolonize and diversify design processes by introducing pluralistic, non-Western philosophies and processes drawn from indigenous crafts communities.
Exposure to non-western
design process
• Looking beyond mainstream Western design contexts and aesthetics.
• Exploring alternate, indigenous methodologies that value ornamentation, irregularity and connection with nature over minimalism.
• Encouraging more pluralistic, authentic design solutions inspired by traditional cultures.
Design as a tool for
social impact
• Appreciating how design can address socio-political and cultural issues beyond just corporate/commercial problems.
• Sensitizing students to the meaning and cultural importance of crafts in defining a community’s identity, ethos and visual expression.
• Understanding to work equitably with these indigenous craft communities.
Handmaking over
digital tools
• Ability to deconstruct any complex craft or visual system, without digital tools, into its fundamental design elements like shapes, forms, patterns.
• Exploring “Eastern” ways of making directly from memory/mind without outlines or guides.
• Skills to then reconstruct new designs like typefaces by understanding and applying the underlying “system” of that craft’s visual language.
• Improving design fundamentals of students through hands-on making.
Sergei from the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology, Warsaw, exploring the Soof embroidery motifs, that wil eventuay be made into letterforms. Seen in the foreground is the actua embroidery sampe of Soof from Kutch, Gujarat in western India.
Students working with Barmer applique craft at the Typecraft Craft-Design Methodology Workshop. Students are not allowed to use computers or any mechanical device. All work is done by hand.
A workshop with design students at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where students are exploring the various motifs of Barmer Katab.
Stages
The Typecraft workshops aims to decolonize and diversify design processes by introducing pluralistic, non-Western philosophies and processes drawn from indigenous crafts communities.
01
Learning about the craft communities
Students research about craft communities which can happen remotely or by visiting the artisans and present their findings to the class.
03
Reconstructing through basic forms
Replicating various non typographical forms based on the craft given to each group of students.
02
Understanding the craft
Students then analyse the visual system of a chosen craft using materials like paper. They also get to work directly with artisans to deepen their understanding.
04
Developing letterforms or typefaces
Using previous explorations as a base, students move on to making letterforms using the forms based on the craft.
What does the workshop provide
Ethical Co-Creation
practices
• Understanding of ethical design practices that facilitate co creation between designers and craftspeople, enabling craft communities to preserve their heritage.
• Equipping students with the capacity to collaborate across cultural divides in a fair and compassionate approach.
Enhanced core Visual principles
Ability to deconstruct and reconstruct complex visual systems into designs like typefaces, exploring non- Western approaches for design thinking.
Handmaking Skills
Hands-on skills to manipulate and work with physical materials through processes derived from “Eastern” ways of making.
Students working with Barmer applique craft at the Typecraft Craft-Design Methodology Workshop. Students are not allowed to use computers or any mechanical device. All work is done by hand.
Students showcasing their letters, after studying the craft, the forms and designs possible in that craft and how those would translate to letters.
What is Typecraft?
The Typecraft Initiative, develops a range of display typefaces based on the rich crafts and tribal arts of indigenous communities. Our aim is to inspire craftspeople to engage with design and use the typefaces as a way to engage with new audiences and to make them aware of these crafts and the people behind them.