kuduch

This typeface is a synthesised response to two seemingly unrelated, interesting events: The commencement of an online type design challenge (47daysofdevanagaritype), and coming across a bag of plastic fusible beads at the local art & craft store.
I wanted to explore the idea of setting an algorithm, and allowing automatic/logical visual results to develop; but in an analogue sense of creation. So the restraints for this experiment were pretty simple:
(a) The medium would define the glyph’s structure; and so the typeface would be pixelized,
(b) The glyphs that would be transferred onto this medium would be handwritten; so it would preserve double strokes and half strokes made while writing the letter,
(c) And lastly, I wanted to create this in the Devanagari script: which is the base script for
languages like Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri; and is mainly used in India, Nepal and Tibet.

TYPE: TYPOGRAPHY ; CLIENT: SELF

Early experiments involved creating one Devanagari glyph a day by melting plastic beads together

The digitised version shows a translation from circular
units to squares, and falls into the category of exaggerated aliased type which is highly experimental and display-based. The following experiments are form-based exercises in understanding how negative space in glyphs could affect
the perceived weight of the same.

The analogue stage brought out immense possibilities for variations, which could be colour-based or form-based.
This pointed toward an integral question: what is the ratio
of visual abstraction to legibility in this typeface? Keeping
in mind that Devanagari is fairly new to pure conceptual experimentation as opposed to say Latin,
given that its use is limited to more traditional print
and web applications, because of a largely conventional audience, in my opinion.

This project moved to further development with Kimya Gandhi (of Mota Italic type foundry) via the Alphabette Mentorship in 2020. Apart from learning the ropes of type-design softwares, I also explored how art could translate into design.

The first draft of this font was presented at one of the online meetups hosted by Typostammtisch Mumbai in 2022.