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Books, Publications, Articles and Exhibitions of our typefaces made from hand made Indian crafts

A talk by Ishan Khosla.

Making elaborate patterns and shapes on the body has an ancient history. There is a universal desire to etch marks on skin, on animals, and on objects to identify, worship, or simply beautify. This phenomena is not just limited to skin, but also to clothing and everyday objects. In India, the craft of making and designing embellishments has a long syncretic relationship. However, Indian crafts are in a state of decline and many have disappeared. The typecraft initiative develops and displays typefaces based on handmade Indian crafts and tribal arts. The initiative began as a way to give new meaning and context to these crafts and the people who make them. Unlike most type foundries, their goal is not just to make a typeface, but to ensure it’s multifaceted. This includes encouraging craftspeople to use design thinking methodologies while engaging with type. The use of type becomes essential in this process as it is new to the craft-making landscape. This creates an atmosphere of experimentation and exploration that enables craftspeople to think in new ways. The making of a typeface also promotes literacy amongst craft communities, as it emphasises the importance of letters and words as a potential source of income. Visual communication students use typecraft as a way to engage with their own cultural heritage through design. Students are encouraged to forgo digital tools and hand construct craft forms as a way to unpack its lexicon, to then repack those forms into letterforms in both Latin and Indic scripts. Ishan Khosla sees this exchange as the start of what is possible in contemporary Indian type design, pedagogy and craft.

Khosla would like to emphasise that this project is unprecedented in that an ancient system of tattoos, and other crafts, have been converted into functional digital display typefaces. These typefaces should not be solely viewed in the same light as other typefaces, but instead as cultural artefacts that have embedded symbolism for hundreds, if not thousands of years. It is also important to consider the value the process of making the letters has on the craft community—from exposure to design and design thinking to literacy. Design students also benefit from this process as they learn about the tactile nature of craft, and how to form it into a letterform that provides great value from a localized context.

Fukuoka Asian Art Museum’s Crossing Vision series comprise exhibitions that introduce various visual expressions that extend well beyond the boundaries of art. These include shows on Manga, animation, video, and design as well as new currents of Asian art emerging from this mix of genres.

These include the exhibitions Asia in Comic: Where are we going? (2001); Indian Video Art: History in Motion (2004); AniMate: ANIME in Japanese and Korean Contemporary Art (2005); and Wing and Lighting: A Half-Century of Magazine Design by Kohei Sugiura (2005).

Ecology of Creation is the fifth for the series and will revisit the original theme “artistic intersections.” It features artists whose work attempt to span and cross several realms.

Their works fuse art with agriculture, economics, design, fashion, architecture, science, engineering, and/or medical care. All seek to explore as yet uncharted directions. Process and relationships are paramount in the act of creation for the exhibition’s participating artists. In the course of making their works, they focus more on preparing an ideal environment for the work, creating good relationships with supporters and collaborators rather than the singular intent of efficiently solving a problem. At times, these underlying processes and relationships appear more important than the final works themselves.

Citing the ecology of the natural world as parallel, the creative environment is imagined as ecosystem that sustains the act and processes of art making. Ecology of Creation is informed by this metaphor as shown by a diverse range of artistic projects.

The exhibition will be at the museum lounge and café area, a setting uncommonly thought of as formal exhibition space; for visitors to enjoy the artworks any time and at their leisure. We also hope that various events organized to complement the exhibition deepen and enrich the experience of art at the museum.

typecraft, South Asia, fonts, typeface, display type, type design, Ishan Khosla, Steven Heller

Typecraft, India, South Asia, fonts, handmade, craft, folk art, Ishan Khosla, Andreu Balius, MAP, Museum of Art and Photography, embroidery, tattoo, kolam, type design

Baiga, tattoo, adivasi, Central India, Gond, Baadi, tribal, godna, India, South Asia, Ishan Khosla, Marg

Tattoo based typeface based on the Baiga tattoos of central india, Ishan Khosla, Steven Heller, Baadi

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