Akshara held a two week workshop for letterform design for Devanagiri script.
First week was exploration with the letterforms using reed pen (boru) and ink.
Exploration involved getting the basic form of alphabets in it's right proportions. This involved careful formation of strokes keeping in mind the negetive and positive space of the alphabet.
Exploration involved getting the basic form of alphabets in it's right proportions. This involved careful formation of strokes keeping in mind the negetive and positive space of the alphabet.
Week 2 was abstracting an alphabet into different forms.
Devanagiri alphabets are formed of certain features which are common to most alphabets. (eg: some alphabets have a 'dand' which is the vertical stroke along the x height also called supporter.) In this exercise, explorations required looking at features of an alphabet which could be eliminated or tweaked without changing the look of the alphabet.
200-300 explorations were made.
According to the features of the chosen alphabet, letterform was created for the list of other alphabets.
The new letterforms were inspired from my favorite Bengali script.
The features of the new forms are:
The features of the new forms are:
*Thick Shiro (horizontal stroke running above the alphabets)
*Connector is missing but 'dand' joins from below (eg: first alphbet in first row from left)
*Unusual ending/loop
*Bigger lower portion.
