Know Your Designer: Ananda Maharjan

Ananda Maharjan is a well-known personality in the Nepali designing world. From his Ananda Fonts to movie posters, Maharjan has been working in the field of design since 2003 when he first joined Format Graphic Studio as a graphic designer. “I saw a small note saying there is a vacancy in a noticeboard near by my high school in Naxal and decided to apply for it even though I didn’t know much.” he remembers about his first job. Since then, he has made a complete circle on his career starting from graphic design to web designing, coding to type design.

But it is his fonts and movie posters that the public know him by. A self-taught type designer, Maharjan’s fonts are available for free on his blog. He shares that he started designing fonts after realizing that there weren’t many choices for Nepali language especially when it came to style. Today, type designing has become his passion while at the same time; he also does calligraphy and lettering as a hobby. "My father’s handwriting has always been an inspiration. I think that’s how I started experimenting with my work” he says.

Maharjan, with a few other designers has, taken initiative in spreading awareness on calligraphy and lettering by conducting two calligraphy meet-ups, conducting workshops in schools on lettering and also recently conducted a calligraphy challenge, Callijatra, on social media, during Tihar (which can be taken as our equivalent of Inktober).

Maharjan shares that the inspiration for design comes from experimenting with it. “I don’t really care what I am doing,” he explains. “I wouldn’t say I was artistic but I used to doodle a lot back in school, be it in notebooks, bags or even benches. I used to make logos of various bands and tried what you can now call lettering. The lettering in brands and shops also fascinated me a lot.” he says.

Maharjan’s designs have been one of the most sought after designs here in Butta. His dedication towards his passion and work has been an inspiration to the whole team. From starting out from a scratch to teaching oneself, his story is the our future designers can learn from.

Find more of Ananda Maharjan’s designs on Butta:http://butta.us/Ananda