Written while drawing a typeface

tried to draw a typeface for my graduation project (bachelor of design) — 2010–11. these are some notes from that year.

20100912

type design is not an art. three days of drawing the alphabet has surely taught me this. it is cruel, painful, and full of sheer awesomeness. nursery kids don’t know how lucky they are!

201009¿24

“why do we give presentations?”, my project guide asked me this today.
easy one, i thought, and even managed to smile a bit to myself. then I went blank. and began to stutter as I fumbled. ultimately, my answer failed to satisfy him.

I’d figured, we give presentations so that we can display\explain the work that we did; We give presentations to inform, and elucidate; To convey; And, along this highway of our life, in-among the nation of roads that humanity is, we demarkate events via flags and milestone markers, but putting ourselves out there.

And my guide retorted - we give presentations so that others can speak to us; Can [incomplete from here on]

20101119

(this project-report is) dedicated to four months of a life, immersed in a last-ditch effort to explore and appreciate as many fields of Design as possible at the Undergraduate level;

And also to: A belated realisation of the fact that those fields don’t quite exist; They’re all the same, and look very much like Hard Work.

20110121; edited 20190627 • about gerrit noordzij’s book,‘the stroke’

when i started off, i was warned by udaya sir that this book was a little too philosophical for someone as new to typeface design as me.

i ventured only to read select sections of the book — and even those select bits, were absolutely brilliant. i drew parallels from noordzij’s explanations to theories in music or/and perception , and the concept of how the negative space is what actually lends identity to composition — pardon the lack of refined terminology — was the most beautiful thing that i’d realised in a very long time. so yes, it’s a small book, and anything but that in all other respects.

20110228

there’re curves a’waiting, to run our hands all over. there’re letters to compose, and silhouettes to stare at. come back you, come fall back in love. there’s a typeface a’waiting, that you used to draw :)

20101119

(this project-report is) Dedicated to Eight months a life, spent balancing spaces black and white.

The black space looks very much like Hard Work, and feels wonderful when it comes out just about right.

The white space, on the other hand, we sometimes forget to observe — foxes in the woods, failure and a smile, conversations under the rain, badminton, and the wind blowing under widespread arms.