KALAMKARI LETTER DESIGN

My role.

Graphic design | Illustrations | Lettering & Typography | Type Design | Design strategy

Tools.

Adobe Illustrator | Adobe Photoshop | Adobe Premier Pro | Adobe Audition | Adobe After Effect| Procreate

Team.

Independent Project

Duration.

12 weeks

OVERVIEW

Content Collaboration

Kalamkari Letter Design is a typography project which has been influenced by the Indian art form called Kalamkari Art.

Kalamkari is derived from a Persian word where ‘Kalam’ means pen and ‘Kari’ refers to craftsmanship. The letter design is a stylized experimental display type with a strong influence on Hindu culture and focuses mainly on religious subjects and scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharata. Each letter is story-driven which makes it impactful and interactive for the viewer.

GLIMPSE OF KALAMKARI LETTER DESIGN

PROCESS: WHERE DO WE START?

Kalamkari art is my favourite art since childhood and I choose to design a letter form to show my gratitude and to flourish the lost art of India. The power of imagination makes us infinite. And that is something I wanted to portray through my designed letters.

The power of imagination makes us infinite. And that is something I wanted to portray through my designed letters.

SELECTION CRITERIA FOR THE SUBJECT

According to the criteria this subject was found more experimental in Latin script.

According to the research, India has always been known as the land that portrayed cultural and traditional vibrancy through its conventional arts and crafts. The main reason behind selection of this topic is to make people aware about India’s rich art style and to make them embrace the beautiful art pieces by taking it forward, by bringing the awareness about it and keeping its legacy.

HOW IS IT RELATED TO TYPOGRAPHY?

The beauty of well-designed type can have a huge impact on how we approach a text. The world of typography today is so much more than a simple game of fonts. Here I have tried to go beyond the technical necessities of typography and tried highlighting it as a true art form. It involves documenting India’s legacy with type.

Hence this subject has been chosen by which the people could get aware in the form of visual. To make this subject more impactful & to make the subject more interactive and easy to understand each letters are given meaning.

WORK PROCESS

The initial stages of work went mostly consisted of the research work about the script, basic structure, and its anatomy.

The purpose of language is to communicate, both verbally as well as visually, with scripts that are symbolic in nature. The fundamental purpose of writing is to convey ideas, but the man was a designer long before he started writing. Then afterward the anatomy of a letter can perhaps be defined as a system which depicts the structural makeup of a letter; describing certain key parts within the letter for a given typeface. These morphological articulations of the characters within the font forms the first level of description within the typographic ontology of a script.

The APROACH

For this subject, first I collected some textual information on Kalamkari art form of India. Once the information was ready, I had to short list 26 stories as per each letter which would be perfect for the execution part. So, I finalised the stories based on Ramayana & Mahabharata

Rough sketches

EXECUTION STYLE

After that, I decided to create stylized letter, designed in a contemporary modern style, so I had to study different ways of execution too. Later, I finalised with line drawing execution which would give me the desired result.

The characteristics of lines are many. Lines may be short or long, thin or thick, straight or curved, direct or, zigzag or serpentine, distinct or blured. These characteristics have certain associations that the artist may make use of. Line drawing itself is a study of five components, those are measure, type, direction, location & character.

In this way, these essential elements give line illustrations much of their character or charm and allows the letters to develop into a perfect art that can convey still object/design into life.

Rough sketches

PROPOSED VISUAL SOLUTIONS

Each alphabet holds within it a tapestry of captivating stories, waiting to be unraveled. The numerical symbols, meticulously crafted in the enchanting patterns of Kalamkari art, bring a touch of artistic beauty to our numerical system.

Furthermore, the punctuations gracefully incorporate characters from the timeless epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, lending an air of myth and legend to our written language. Together, these elements intertwine to create a rich proposed visual solutions

ALPHABETS

Krishna showing Vishwarupa to Arjuna during Mahabharata war.

Vishnu reclines on Sheshnaga with Brahma emerging on a lotus from his navel.

Cowherd in Vrindavan.

Durga on lion.

Panchmukhi avatar of Vishnu rescues mother Earth from the clutches of Hiranyaksha.

Krishna enchanting Gopika’s with Flute.

Siddhidata Ganesha surrounded by other Gods.

Rama gives Hanuman his ring to take to lanka for Sita.

Sita requests Rama to fetch the Illusory Golden deer.

Jatayu battels with Ravana to rescue Sita.

Krishna preaching Gita to Arjuna during Kurukshetra war of Mahabharata.

Lakshmi on lotus.

Krishna lifts Mount Govardhana.

Narsimha killing demon Hiranyaksha.

Churning of the Ocean Manthan.

Hanuman with Parvat Sanjeevni.

Krishna dancing on Kaliya naag after winning Quarrel with it.

Ram Darbar.

Rama worshipping Shiv Linga at Rameswaram.

Rama and Lakshman at war with Ten headed Ravan.

Lord Uma Maheshwari.

Sita in ashok Vatika.

Rama meets Wounded Jatayu.

Dancing Shiva & Parvati on the Xyst of the far east.

Dashratha received sacred Paayasam from the Yajna Purusha.

Shravan kumar meets Zinger death.

NUMERICALS

punctuations

  • Ampersand

  • Comma

  • Colon

  • Semi colon

  • Question mark

  • Exclamation mark

  • Round bracket

  • Square bracket

  • Quotes

  • Stroke / Slash

  • Full stop

WHAT’S NEXT?

  • Our next "Kalamkari letter design" project can focus on two sets: one inspired by the Ramayana tale and the other by the Mahabharata tale.

  • We can create a captivating stop motion/animation based on these letter designs.

  • Additionally, we can use Augmented Reality to enhance the embedded story within the letters, adding an extra layer of beauty and intrigue.

  • Let's embark on this creative journey, merging traditional art with modern techniques to create something truly enchanting.