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Why do we love to hate Comic Sans? Why is a résumé typed in cursive

Brush Script grounds for rejection? Why does the Neon type work for

one Instagram story but not another? Every font has deeper

meaning, saying more than just the printed words. The Typecraft

Initiative, led by graphic designer Ishan Khosla, delves into

India’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 tribal

artisans: Godna, based on tattoo motifs of the Gond

tribe in Chhattisgarh, and Chittara, an adaptation

of paintings integral to village homes in Karnataka.

Here, he speaks with Bazaar on the significance of

the project and the challenges of creating Latin

letters with artists who don’t understand them.

What is the aim of The Typecraft Initiative?

The idea was to create functional typefaces using

various crafts and tribal arts of India, many of

which are on the verge of disappearance. Gond

artists, for instance, are struggling because people

migrating to cities don’t want tattoos—they may

get one or two for namesake—and that’s affecting

their livelihood. And typography is a good

medium, since you can actually create something

out 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 is

customised to the group we work with and the

difficulty of their craft. Ideally, we like to conduct a

workshop, wherein we spend a week understanding

their craft. In the second stage, we ask the artists to interpret

letters in their art form, so they draw or embroider it first.

Then we give them instructions regarding proportions, the

height and thickness of letters. The process takes over a year, from

initial meetings with the artists to finalising the designs to scanning

and vectoring their drawings.

THE BOLD TYPE

Change the way you engage with Indian craft,

as The Typecraft Initiative re-imagines

tribal art forms as digital fonts

DESIGN

Original artwork

by tribal artisans

The

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set)^ Chittara^ letters.