Type Hype 4th March, 2011

Timeless Typographers

Milestones

HERMANN ZAPF

German designer Hermann Zapf is a calligrapher, type designer and book designer. He is married to Gudrun Zapf von Hesse, also a calligrapher and type designer. Born in Nuremberg on 8th No-vember 1918, he was interested in technical subjects during school years. His ambition was to become an electric engineer. However due to political cir-cumstances he was compelled to look for an apprenticeship. Thus he came to start his career as an apprentice retoucher in Nurem-berg. While learning the trade he came into contact with the work of Rudolf Koch and quickly developed a strong interest in lettering. He is a self-taught calligrapher who drew his inspiration from the works of Rudolf Koch and E d w a r d

Johnston. After his four years of apprenticeship, he moved to Frankfurt to work for Paul Koch, the son of Rudolf Koch. It was there in Frankfurt where he soon formed relationships with the type foundries Stempel and Li-notype. He had designed his first font – a fractur named Gilgen-gart – by the age of 20 years. During world war two Zapf worked as a cartographer. Af-ter war he was offered the posi-tion of artistic head in Stempel. A noteworthy product of those post-war years is the publica-tion Feder und

Stichel (Pen and Graver). The 25 plates were designed by Zapf and cut in metal by the punchcutter August Rosenberger.The Palatino typeface was de-signed in 1948 after careful stud-ies and offset printing tests with August Rosenberger. The type Palatino is named after the Italian writing master of the 16th century Giambattista Palatino.Optima, designed in 1952, was released in 1958 by Stempel. It is a typeface design between a Ro-man and a sans-serif (later called a semi-sans-serif ). The letters were based on the Golden Section and

developed after studies and sketches done in Italy in

1950. Optima was first intended as a

display face, but then

was changed into a text type, to later have an opportunity to re-place sans-serif alphabets in art books, magazines and other pub-lications. The name “Optima” was an invention of the sales people at Stempels. In 1964 at Harvard University, Zapf talked about programmed type. But it was too early then. In 1970, he got an invitation from University of Texas to teach com-puterised typography. However, the invitation that he accepted was from Rochester. The School of Printing Management and Sci-ences at RIT, the Rochester Insti-tute of Technology, was the first university in the world to estab-lish, in 1976, a chair for research and development on the basic structures of typographic com-puter programs. Since 1977 Zapf has been teaching at RIT. The hz programme, a composition pro-gramme for the improvement of typesetting quality, was a result of his experience in the US.In 1977, Zapf founded ‘Design Processing International Inc.’ in New York with two of his friends Aaron Burns and Herb Lubalin. The aim was to develop compu-ter programmes for typographic structures based on a variable menu and for use by non- spe-cialists. The company existed un-til 1986.Zapfino was designed in 1993. The typeface was based on a cal-ligraphic work done by Hermann Zapf himself way back in 1944. It was published by Linotype. In 2002, Hermann Zapf and Japa-nese type designer Akira Koba-yashi, Type Director at Linotype, collaborated on a project, which included re-working of the exist-ing weights and the addition of several new weights for a total of 40 fonts.Zapf has designed for letterpress printing, photosetting and dig-ital typesetting. Some critiques say that his type designs are too calligraphic or his calligraphy is too typographic. His earlier ex-

“Typography is two-dimensional architecture, based on experience and imagination, and guided by rules and readability.”

perience as a cartographer and a retoucher shows in the precise variations of details which we find in the swelling of strokes, at the end of strokes, the shape of an as-terisk, the bowl of an ‘a’, and the numeric. One of his calligraphic works, which he considers as his biggest calligraphic job, was in 1960 for the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. He wrote out the Preamble of the Charter of the United Nations in 4 lan-guages, including Russian.Hermann Zapf has designed more than 120 typefaces. The movie “The art of Hermann Zapf” was made in 1967, the Ger-man version being “Die Welt der Buchstaben”. This is also the name of his permanent exhibition at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel. But all said and done, his heart lies with his hum-ble pen and designing typefaces.

Swar

Optima, 1952

Typography Day, 3rd March Opening Session, through the pen of Vijai Singh Katiyar

Script is a visual mode of com-munication for a language, which consists of alphabets. Alphabets convey certain sounds. When certain alphabets are put together they convey meaning. Dance is another mode of visual commu-nication where human body is an instrument; Bharata Natyam is one of them. Originated in Tamil-nadu, this classical dance form has two aspects, nritta and natya. Nritta is pure dance and con-veys only harmonic movements. Natya is composed of hastas1 and expressions.These two visual forms (script and dance) share some common pat-terns. e.g. The construction of a form. The combination /k/ halant (devanagari script) with different vowels gives us different expres-sions, similarly visharu adavu2, hastas (of Bharata Natyam) and expressions when combined, gives us different rasas. (refer Fig 1 and Fig 2)

Dear Delegates and Friends,

On behalf of NID and IDC, the co-organizers of this event, I wel-come you all who have converged here from all across the world to celebrate Typography. I wish eve-ryone a very enriching and enjoy-able experience.

The biggest human quest has al-ways been to search the Truth. It’s the Truth that we all are some-what familiar with. It is omni-present and resides deep within us. One that drives human en-deavors and gives meaning to our existence. Had this not been real Truth, every law of science wouldn’t have exceptions. Even

EXPLORING SIMILARITIES IN INDIAN SCRIPT/S AND BHARATA NATYAMHarshad Kulkarni & Yogita Kulkarni

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

The structure of the form,could be another pattern. Similarity in the structure of an alphabet and a dance pose. To elaborate this patten we can split the alphabets in to stem and branches. Where stem acts as base, branches con-struct the form. Same could be mapped with aramandi, the basic stance of Bharata Natyam. (refer Fig 3)Such patterns bind these two communication forms, which may not be perceived by their receptive audiences. This excise is a bridge to connect these two audiences, to explore newer pos-sibilities. This paper will docu-ment such patterns. And can act as a reference to type designers, graphic designers and possibly to dancers while creating/modify-ing their respective visual expres-sions, which could be a typeface, logo, symbol or even a choreog-raphy.

most celebrated scientific discov-ery of our times is called, 'Theory of Relativity'. The E=mc2, we all know.

One of the best ways known to designers to seek truth is to re-visit the very fundamentals. In my opinion this is exactly what brand new edition of this event is aim-ing to do – through its ambience and attitude.

The enlightened amongst design fraternity understand the falla-cies of Globalization. The para-digm is founded on myths that are fundamentally in contradic-

tion and conflict with the richest of achievements of human civili-zation - the diversity of cultures. So the quest of this event to re-examine idioms of Typography in a range of socio-cultural contexts is desirable. I compliment Tarun, Suresh and everyone else from the organizing team to have cre-ated this unique platform.

Yesterday was Mahasivaratri, an auspicious day to commemorate Lord Shiva, the god of destruc-tion. The dawn today is symbolic enough to suggest a new begin-ning. NID considers design a stra-tegic mean for empowering peo-

ple and driving social change. So, Let the new mantra of Design to empower people and society be;

E(Empowerment) = m(My) X c2 (Culture)2

I applaud the hard work and ini-tiative of our Graphic Design dis-cipline. Hope you all will enjoy your time and experience with us.

Vijai Singh KatiyarChairperson, Professional Education Programmes, NID

Journey through the World of Indian ManuscriptsIndian Manuscript Mysteries at L.D. Indology Museum, Ahmedabad

Typography Day, 3rd March Session 1, through the eyes of TURMERIC DESIGN

A visit to the L.D. (Lalbhai Dal-patbhai) Indology museum re-vealed interesting facts about Jaina manuscripts. Pahari Mini-ature Paintings, Rajasthani, Cen-tral India and Gujarati School of Paintings housed at the N.C. Me-hta Gallery showed the metamor-phosis of layouting in terms of visual hierarchy and typography. During early 16th century, the text was written first and then artists were hired to create the miniature painting complement-ing the text in the given area as decided by the Lakhiyas. But as time progressed, the theme of the texts usually complemented the visuals and included sacred po-etic compositions, epics, Ragmala paintings, darbar scenes, and re-ligious and social festivals. The love poems of the Gita Govinda by poet Jayadeva, the Rasikapriya of Keshavdas, the Satsai of Bihari-lal, the Barahamasa depiction of seasons were popular themes of the paintings.Most of the manuscripts dis-played were of Devnagari script. The languages of the text included Brajbhasha, and Ardhamagadhi.

Ardhamagadhi, literally ‘Half Magadhi’, is a Prakrit, one of a number of dialects of the Indo-Aryan linguistic group and re-garded as the eternal language of the scriptures as well as the language of the gods in heaven. Also some manuscripts displayed the Ranjan script that covered the Newari language (of Nepali ori-gin) and the Kharoshthi script. Initially the manuscripts of Jaina canonical texts were written on sheets of palm-leaves (tad-patra) and thus early manufacturing of paper was introduced but the format of paper sheets contin-ued to be rectangular, with nar-row width and horizontal lay-out adopted for writing by the scribes. In these leaves a small

space about three inches in height were left for painters. The Kalpas-utra manuscripts depicted the life of Tirthankaras like Mahavir, se-lected episodes of Kalakacharya Katha and symbolic themes from the Sangrahani Sutra. The text of such manuscripts were written by Lakhiyas and space was kept for the visual which would be the miniature paintings rendered by artists with detail us-ing indigenous mineral colours on handmade paper. The manu-scripts dating early 16th century had text accompanying the visu-als. The Lakhiyas not only wrote the text, but also decided the lay-out of the manuscript including the marginal spacing. Initially the text space was more, but as time progressed the visuals became more prominent with text being written at the rear for detailed de-scription of the visual or painting in front. The prominence given to the text also depended on the dif-ferent schools, styles, periods and the patrons supporting them.Another interesting feature ob-served was, the presence of a red circular form centrally placed amidst the text on a page. Such layouts were done to pierce the pages for binding or storage. Even pages with paintings had a much smaller area for such piercing that were a part of the design, but it was noticed that such visually rich pages were avoided for pierc-ing and only text heavy pages were holed.In the Muni Punyavijayaji Gal-lery a collection of pothis (manu-scripts) were observed from the 1940’s along with wooden book covers (patli) created for palm leaf manuscripts. Also the writing tools displayed included pencils, reed pens, ink holders in wood and metal. Many other interest-ing tools from his personal col-lection can also be seen in this gallery.

The curiosity about Indian manu-scripts increased after an enrich-ing conversation with Ms. Bul-Bul, the chief curator of the N.C. Mehta Gallery. So we continued researching further and in one of the articles titled ‘Manuscript, Writer and His Tools’ by Prof. Siddharth Y. Wakankar, we found out that there are many manuals in Sanskrit such as the Patrakau-mudi and Lekhapaddhati dealing with the science of Epistologra-phy. There are myriad tools for writing manuscripts and interest-ingly they all begin with the letter KA. For example, Kumpi (Ink-pot), Kajjal (Ink), Kambi (Line marker), Kalama (Pen), Kankara (pebble to sharpen point of the pen) and many more. In the domain of Indian manu-scripts, the meaning behind the visuals and illustrations, literally styles, dates and historical facts, social and topical references has been explored to a great extent by scholars. But the analysis of the written texts in terms of typogra-phy is an unexplored area waiting to be discovered. Museums store manuscripts and it has a great level of historical and typographi-cal value but presently the inter-est to study and disseminate their information is low. The renowned Prof. R.K. Joshi who has done cal-ligraphic analysis of Devanagari scripts says: “Let the dust laden manuscripts of the past emerge to breathe the air of the present and lend their meaning to the future.”

Typography needs to be audible, typography needs to be felt, typography needs to be experienced.

“Why do all the Odia typefaces look the same?” Ashutosh Kar, student of PG Graphic Design had always wondered. By the time he came to his last semester at NID, he had developed a clear thinking for typography and Odia being his mother tongue, he was very keen on designing a typeface as his classroom project.The Odia writing system is a fu-sion between syllabic writing sys-tem and phonetic writing system. The present day Odia script is considered to be one of the north Indian scripts so its basic struc-ture is similar to ‘Devanagari’. Ashutosh carefully studied the anatomy of the Odia letterforms through classifications as well as breaking up each letterform into basic shapes and curves to under-stand the core structure.

Chamspa Rinchen Dorje, a post graduate student of Graphic de-sign took up the task of designing a workbook of the Tibetan script (U-med) for Ladakhi school stu-dents that is both affordable and durable.

AKAR, DESIGN OF A CONTEM-PORARY ODIA TYPEFACEAshutosh KarGuide: Tarun Deep GirdherProject 2- Sem 4, 2009

WORKBOOK OF THE TIBETAN SCRIPT (U-MED) FOR LADAKHI SCHOOL Chamspa Rinchen DorjeGuide: Tarun Deep Girdher Project 2- Sem 4, 2010

Importance of the traditional script has been on the decline with various factors such as em-phasis on foreign languages and keeping the native language as an additional one, old and outdated teaching and learning methods, inefficient textbooks etc having contributed to it. Being a native, Dorje has a strong sense of con-nection with the script and is un-happy with the neglect it is facing. He says, “If change is the neces-sity of growth and development, then being a Ladakhi I believe that there are some things, which are changing rapidly but hinder-ing the needed development in

other fields. “Learning Tibetan/Bodhi begins at an early age of 4-5 years. It is a complex script with calligraphic thick and thin strokes is difficult for a kid to grasp in a short du-ration. Dorje observed that the

Featured Student Projects Ashutosh Kar | Chamspa Rinchen Dorje

The issues and challenges involved with any Indic typefaces are different from that of Roman counterparts.

drawings, present typographic trends were also studied to get a better idea on the style.After several designs and revi-sions, the final typeface was born. It was designed based on a com-pletely new proportion and visual style. Ashutosh named it ‘Akar’ , which means ‘shape’ in Odia lan-guage. The design was inspired from handwriting and has very prominent counters. Thus the de-

Due to large number of Glyphs and Graphemes, the task is huge and technically far more complex. His observation and background studies showed that multiple as-pects of intervention are required for a possible new design. But consciously he approached the project taking physical letter-forms and contemporary style as the main idea. During the initial

sign is very effective and readable in smaller sizes. According to Ashutosh, the project gave him a through grounding and skills of design-ing a complete Indic typeface and more than that establishing a new contemporary visual language in Odia type design (his mother tongue) gave him immense satis-faction.

The Tibetan script was once an im-portant element of traditional Ladakhi education and was taught in monas-teries and non-monastery institutes from basic script to its calligraphic form for 10 to 15 years.

shift in writing tools from the traditional cut nib reed pens to pencils has completely changed the style of the script. Textbooks and teachers are still following old style learning methods but students have to follow a new method of writing with normal pencil. For this, he tried devising a method to achieve the same cal-ligraphic using the regular pen-cil. Getting two pencils, cutting them vertically from the centre so that the lead remains on the same side, sticking them with tape and holding the pencil in 45 degree angle did the trick. But, Dorje, as a visual communication designer,

felt a need to make it's simplified version which helps in under-standing the basic form of letters which is more important rather than trying to understand the thick and thin structure of script, for a beginner.Dorje studied the existing text-books used in Ladakhi schools, spent time with the students there and undertook compara-tive study of textbooks in other languages. With a better under-standing of the problems faced by the students, he developed a workbook under the guidance of Mr. Tarun Deep Girdher that in-cludes simplified form of letters in dotted line with grid system for children to write over, which will create an understanding of curves and proportion of letters. Every letter includes two to seven strokes to get its form, so to un-derstand step-to-step construc-tion of letter, hierarchy in strokes is introduced by applying gray-scale gradation to every stroke. To make it more interesting and easy learning method, every let-ter is introduced with an image, which make children easy to re-member any letter.This project gave him a lot of future vision which can be im-plemented as a graphic designer for the betterment of education of the region. As a humble con-

tribution to this beautiful script, he hopes to make a difference through this workbook and get children to enjoy learning the script instead of the mugging it up without knowing the beauty of its form.