Romancing the Indic Type

Satya-rajpurohit

“I didn’t get into Type Design, it found me!”

If there is one word that best describes Satya Rajpurohit, it is modesty. Satya is the co-founder of Indian Type Foundry, a one of its kind firm that specializes in delivering quality Indic typefaces. For a country that has 9 major scripts, bring all the scripts under one umbrella is a Herculean task. But for young Satya this is his vision — A single type family for the whole of India.

“My work will bring India together.”

Satya has always been good with illustrations. However, taking this forward as a profession is something that his parents were not happy about.

As soon as Satya finished school, like others he too had to prepare for various competitive examinations for medicine. His parents wanted him to become a doctor, but his heart lay elsewhere. After spending two years preparing for these, Satya gave up and declared to his parents that he did not want to become a doctor. “I used to spend 2 hours with those books and they would seem like 20!” Satya took up a course in Fine Arts at The College of Arts, Chandigarh. During his foundation year, he happened to meet some students from NID and realized his true calling.

“It’s the love for letterforms and a romance that very few can understand. Not many designers understand typefaces,” confesses Satya. As far as Satya can remember, he had no intentions of becoming a type designer when he first considered a career in design. “Initially I wanted to get into animation!” During his foundation year at NID, after being sensitized to 2D forms, Satya decided what he wanted to do – Graphic Design.

During his 3rd year at NID, Satya sent some of his work to Linotype, Germany and landed an internship there. This was the turning point of his life. Since then Satya has not looked back. Type had infected him.

“I had no time to think of doing anything else after this!” At Linotype, Satya was commissioned to design the Devanagri companion to Frutiger Sans. During this time, Satya got in touch with Bruno Maag in London via e-mail. Seeing his interest and quality of work in Devanagri typefaces, Satya was commissioned to design Tamil and Bengali companion to their InterFace Latin typeface family. Although he was not comfortable with Bengali and Tamil script at that time, he accepted this project.

“I started studying the script from scratch, the same way a kid learns the alphabets!” After 4 months, Satya was finally ready to design the typefaces.

While working at Linotype, Satya visited Peter Biliak’s studio in the Netherlands and presented some of his work and research findings. Peter offered Satya to design the Devanagri companion to Fedra Sans. After two years, Fedra Devanagari was complete and ready for release.

Releasing a single Devanagri typeface under an established type foundry in Netherlands had many disadvantages. Both cost and quantity concerns led Satya to make an epic decision — set up a firm dedicated to designing typefaces exclusively for India — Indian Type Foundry. “Fedra Hindi was a good excuse to start the foundry,” confesses Satya.

“I love letterforms. It is perhaps the best exercise a graphic designer can take up. It is an exercise that is purely form-based and heightens the sense of aesthetics, balance and contrast,” says Satya passionately. “When someone uses my typefaces, it gives me a sense of happiness that I cannot describe! The first time I saw Fedra Hindi used in a magazine, I was really excited to see the typeface in those magazines.”

As the romance of Black and White continues, Satya is happy being stuck with it. Designing good typefaces is one thing, educating clients is another! “Not everyone understands the difference a good typeface can make,” complains Satya. “Also the time one spends in making a typeface is something most people do not understand.”

So what can we expect from Indian Type Foundry in the near future? Satya currently works out of Ahmadabad and has a few students working under him. They are designing a number of Indic typeface families including a giant family called Kohinoor Multiscript. This family will consist of good quality typefaces of all the 9 major scripts in India.

We wish Satya and Indian Type Foundry all the luck we can gather.

JAM (just a minute…)

What is the best moment of the day?
Midnight. I love to work during this time. Things are a lot quieter then.

If there were one person for whom you would like to design a thing. Who is the person and what would you design?
There isn’t a single person I would like to design. I would love to design for the Government of India.

One word that would define your designs/style?
Minimalistic

As a designer, one thing that you would like to change in the present system?
Better-trained faculty in design institutes

If you were an animated character, which one would it be?
Garfield

What is your favorite color?
Green. As a graphic designer I love colors, but personally its green.

If someone wrote a biography about you, what do you think the title should be?
I don’t see one coming some time soon. I don’t have an answer for this right now.

What are you afraid of regarding the future?
Western influence over India

How do you differentiate yourself from other designers?
Patience. Sometimes my work takes a lot of time and I think that’s what differentiates me.

What are the challenges you face in the present context?
Educating clients. Not everyone understands the value of a good typeface.

One aspect of design you give the highest priority to?
Aesthetics. It has to look good.

One design-related book you highly recommend to read?
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

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