Discovering letter structures by taking script as an inspiration

Typography Day is celebrated every year by hosting an international event dedicated to exploring finer aspects of typography. I presented a paper about an experimental project named ‘Mishti Devanagari’ this year. The paper was about exploring letter forms using script as an inspiration.

Purpose

Content has become key in modern designing approach. In order to stand out in crowd, brands are conscious about what they are saying. To extend the reach, brands are experimenting with regional languages and scripts. Recent examples of marketing by the brands like Zomato and Indigo prove effective use of regional languages. With context of India, this new trend demands content generation in multiple languages and thereby scripts.

Script as an inspiration

All the scripts we see today in India have evolved from ancient script named Bramhi. These have undergone many changes to reach it’s final form. Tools and surface material has shaped our modern scripts. Each having it’s own unique character can be an inspiration for letter form exploration.

Mishti Devanagari

As the title hints, this endeavor is about experimenting with the Devanagari and Bengali scripts. I have been aware of the Devanagari script since I first started learning to communicate in the scriptural form. I believe it is always a good idea to start off with something you have roots in. It makes it more personal. And with time, I got exposed to the visual forms of many other scripts. One of the many — Bengali, has always fascinated me with its grace and beauty. Both these scripts — Devanagari and Bengali, are used as scripts for multiple languages and their dialects. Considering the statistics of their probable usage, content generation and form, both these scripts seem compatible enough to adapt to a new style.

01. Form replacement method

The Form has been taken as the inspiration to derive new letter structures. Some of the more unique forms have been selected out of the Bengali script to experiment with.

The selected forms were fused with the corresponding Devanagari characters to create a new version of the Devanagari letter structure. The resulting form was then stylised and simplified to attain aesthetic legibility and visual balance.

Fusion of forms with stylisation

This route follows a process similar to earlier route. The exploration in this route is extended further with a layer of stylisation over the skeleton structure created for the new script. This style is inspired by the sweetness associated with Bengali culture.

Stroke style as an inspiration

Both Bengali and Devanagari script follow a similar stroke angle yet the structure gives distinct identity to both the scripts. The Bengali script has a more angular and graceful stroke in comparison to Devanagari. Taking the same character ahead — Letter structures were explored.

Continuing the above process for letter structure discovery — the character of stroke was infused and maintained in the entire family.

If everything around us is an inspiration, why a script can’t be? Extending the exploration to more scripts with same process mentioned above.

The project was an experiment and can be extended further in many ways. Sometimes restricting the horizons purely based on demand will restrict the process of exploration. It was an amazing experience to read about the scripts, history, it’s forms during the process.

Do have a look at full presentation.