UPDATE

My apologies, I haven't updated the blog for a long time. A lot of work has happened since October.
The Design and research are happening parallely. I am discovering new ways in looking at a typeface. The more I venture into the form, the more I am figuring out how it can be made more functional.

Here are the things I have done so far:
1.) Calligraphy practice of Gujurati Letterforms.
2.) Analysing the difference in calligraphic typefaces and hand painted type.
3.) Selecting a form and exploring base letterforms.
4.) Finalzing the character set with respect to root letters.
5.) Vectorizing the letterforms on software
6.) Learning and experimenting in Fontlab
7.) Create all derived and Independent forms

Task yet to be done:

1.) Visual Corrections of the letterforms
2.) Additional features


So I have been pretty much practicing calligraphy. I am refering this book by Christopher Calderhead called "The World Encyclopedia of Calligraphy : The Ultimate Compendium on the Art of Fine Writing-History, Craft and Technique", which you can buy here. This book contains acute details of how the letters are supposed to be written with the desired tool. Its a very informative book and has covered examples of the Masters.

Practicing calligraphy has made me realize the form of the letterforms. Its making me understand the visual language of letterform, which I was not adept in seeing. Only by this, I will now be able to form a character set keeping in mind my inferences.
With calligraphy, I realize how much a letterform can be stretched with respect to its skeleton, so as not to hamper its legibility, its proportions and the overall weight of the letterform.

Ill be updating my blog soon with all the calligraphic alterations I have made for this project.

Talk with Sarang Kulkarni

5th October 2012

I met Sarang today to show my research and the type explorations that I have done so far. As we were discussing  Sarag told me that I had skipped one chief step required for type design. The approach that I have taken to directly start with the mass and weight of the typeface referring a hand painted type is at a very hollow stage. What I now need to do is practice calligraphy on a regular basis, just like sketching to improve my understaning of the character. He told me that when you are designing a type from handpainters, then you have to input your knowledge, even on exploration stage, because handpainters do not have the knowledge of conventional type design and if his is not done, then I might face major problems in the character itself. By practicing calligraphy, I will understand the most important aspect ie; how a type is written, because that will help me understand the weight, the width the angle of the character.

As I have taken te approach of making my own type, then I will also have to read up on gujarati character study and how a letterform is constructed. Sarang gave me an excerise to draw some skeletal sketches of types and then add mass to them inorder to understand the positive and negative spaces. He told me to look at the typeface "Shruti" for windows and to analyse it and understand its mannerisms. Only after I understand how a character is drawn, only then can I start making my character.

Some Important Links | Type and Typography

Some Important and Informative links on Type and Typography. A must see for aspiring typographers.

Typeworkshop -  The very basics of Type design.

Typetoken - Inspirational use of Typography

Thinking with Type - Typography Tips, Tricks and Resources.

OmniGlot - A data bank for languages and scripts of the world.

Talk with Sanchit Sawaria

Sanchit Sawariya has created a typeface named "Kathan" as a part of his studio 3 and his Diploma project with ITF. I discussed with him my process so far and whether I was going the right direction. He advised me to sketch out the skeletons first and then add mass to a typeface. The mass can be added later, once the skeleton of the typeface is fixed. This will help me in understanding the key structure of the typeface. I guess designing a type face, is very similar to drawing human study. You first have to get the skeleton right.

Sanchit later guided me in font lab and explained me the basic tools. This was really helpful as I had no idea how to even create a file in font lab with the right encoding before.

I tried out some linear sketches for my type. Will try out some more soon. Also I am planning to experiment with a very crude basic latin typeface on fontlab before jumping to Gujarati, just to get a hang of the software.

You can see Sanchit's work here : http://sanchitsawaria.blogspot.in/

Design Development | Vector

I decided to out some vectorizing on illustrator with a simple grid grid behind. I have just made a few characters and they are not yet visually balanced.

My friend, Asoka Prem, a graphic design student here at NID who has already work on a typeface, advised me to make the characters directly on Fontlab as it is more precise and there are certain complications while importing vectors from illustrator to Fontlab.

will try out Font lab soon...

Research | Designing Type - Karen Cheng

                "A Typeface is the Formal Manifestation of the Authors Voice".

I have started reading this book called Designing Type - Karen Cheng. This is suggested by Tarun and is a very technical book. Its talks about Latin type design specifications. How can you enhance your type and how different types of types follow a certain language of construction is laid out in detail.

While reading this book, I can see that it is important to break the grid for balancing the letterforms visually.  I would like to come up with a similar book on indic scripts, which explains the technical details of enhancing your typeface aesthetically as well as technically, for the future type designers.

Explorations | The root letters

I have now started drawing some characters. These are inspired from a analysis done before. Currently sketching out the  સ  , ન , ઉ , મ, પ , ફ  , જ  as they are the root letters of the script.

I am trying to build up a character which would be more towards being bold or Black.
The technique of rendition would be decided once the initial characters style gets finalized.