BAZAAR

HOT LISTBazaarWhy do we love to hate Comic Sans? Why is a résumé typed in cursiveBrush Script grounds for rejection? Why does the Neon type work forone Instagram story but not another? Every font has deepermeaning, saying more than just the printed words. The TypecraftInitiative, led by graphic designer Ishan Khosla, delves intoIndia’s craft traditions through digital fonts—in the process,it explores narratives of empowerment, modernity, legacy,and relevance. Recently, he released two typefaces,available to download, in collaborations with tribalartisans: Godna, based on tattoo motifs of the Gondtribe in Chhattisgarh, and Chittara, an adaptationof paintings integral to village homes in Karnataka.Here, he speaks with Bazaar on the significance ofthe project and the challenges of creating Latinletters with artists who don’t understand them.What is the aim of The Typecraft Initiative?The idea was to create functional typefaces usingvarious crafts and tribal arts of India, many ofwhich are on the verge of disappearance. Gondartists, for instance, are struggling because peoplemigrating to cities don’t want tattoos—they mayget one or two for namesake—and that’s affectingtheir livelihood. And typography is a goodmedium, since you can actually create somethingout of it. It’s not an end in terms of craft.What is the creation process?It’s complicated! We like to call it bespoke, as it iscustomised to the group we work with and thedifficulty of their craft. Ideally, we like to conduct aworkshop, wherein we spend a week understandingtheir craft. In the second stage, we ask the artists to interpretletters in their art form, so they draw or embroider it first.Then we give them instructions regarding proportions, theheight and thickness of letters. The process takes over a year, frominitial meetings with the artists to finalising the designs to scanningand vectoring their drawings.THE BOLD TYPEChange the way you engage with Indian craft,as The Typecraft Initiative re-imaginestribal art forms as digital fonts``````DESIGN``````Original artworkby tribal artisans``````The``````letter^ O``````in^ the^ Godna^font. (Inset)^ Chittara^ letters.