Search for Vernacular Identity

Author(s): Mahendra C. Patel

Source: Design Issues, Vol. 21, No. 4, Indian Design and Design Education (Autumn, 2005), pp.
32-40
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25224017 .
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 Search forVernacular Identity
MahendraC. Patel

I am a Gujarati, an Indian, and what is it to have this feeling and

With urbanization, and national and global networking, are
identity?
we it?Are we towards no, new, or identities?
losing moving multiple
Do we need an identity? Is itgood tohave one?
I am Gujarati because Iwas born, raised, and nurtured in a

homogeneous Gujarati society,with typical regional foods, and a

environment. I also am because I live and
living language Gujarati
work for the people and industries of Gujarat.

Gujarat is one of the states of India; and I am concerned,

affected, and elements in

guided, dependent, governed by many
life that come collectively from the Indian (central) government that
make me Indian. I am an Indian in that spirit and sense.

with exposure to the and cultures

Today, greater people
of other Indian states and other countries work, contact,
through
and satellite, I am more concerned about vernacularism and
print,
the emerging trends.

Is it the we read, write, and communicate

language speak,
in?
Is it the of the foods we eat, the clothes we wear,
lifestyle
the household we use, and the houses we live?
appliances
Is it the values we subscribe to in terms of religious beliefs

and rituals; or is it our commitment to a tribe or a

place?
Is it our birthplace, or the to which we
parents, society

belong?
I am and anxious, and I wonder as a human
perplexed
as a teacher as well as a this need
being?and professional?about
or value called "vernacular identity."
Over the years, I have had good opportunities to teach and
letter forms, for "vernacularism" with my graphic
explore searching
students. Here are some student to accompany
design profiles

examples of their work:

A?CDEf CHlJ 1 English in Tantric Forms for Indians.

Anand, a student at theNational Institute ofDesign (NID) in 1998,
KLf?lJlOPQrS comes from northern India. He felt the need for an Indian-looking
or any other
English typefacewhich did not look likeDevanagari
TUVUUXVZ Indian script, but which could depict popular forms and symbols
of Indian culture. He and studied the spiritual Tantric art
1234567890 explored

symbols and graphics, and has developed a unique typeface called

I -?( :.""-)
"Tantra."

? ofTechnology
2005 Massachusetts Institute
32 Issues: Volume 21, Number4 Autumn2005
Design
 ;pxpi x|\5t> ^^?^l <P<

U_ Komin
typcblt by
inspimi tctlcrfornu
Bcugali

Al2C1>?>f<?H-1t?K I^QKAStt Iciicrtorn

byBengali
nspirccl

^ ?[ *?^ $ F??^ti* ^^v&??f

N?^tT^r^ *i^p<r^^ ?T?r^<r*?
^ ^^ ^^rf ^ W^"^ ^H og (^ vS^

1%.<\.!
1?>*6678.9o

2 English with a Bengali Flavor forBengalis Abroad.

Kritika, another NID student,was brought up inKolkota (Calcutta)
in a family that came to Bengal from the Punjab after Indian

Independence in 1947. The family speaks English, Hindi, and

She can read, and write in
Punjabi. reasonably speak, Bengali.

Inspired by thepopular existing Bengali fonts inprint, she ventured

to create an with a flavor, and named it
English typeface Bengali
"the in
"Prokash"?meaning light" Bengali.

33
Design Issues: Volume 21, Number4 Autumn2005
Vowelizations of the letter"da."

J ?) J>
da daa daa j) di
di J;

J Ji ?j
dee du
j\ j\
du doode

di 6e di
doe doe^
dow

dum
dum da^m

Sentence inNitskar?
"an incidentat Cherandattor."

3 Malayalam inArabic Style forKeralians

in theMiddle East.
also a NID student, was born and raised in a Christian
Angela,

family inKerala. She has studied at an English medium school, but

is quite at home with Malayalam, a and She
regional script language.
has several and from her have
relations, friends, people region who
settled in theMiddle East, some of them have been there formore
than a generation. She the need for a font inMalayalam
recognized
for them, in themore familiar style theywere brought up with, but
no see.
longer

34
Design Issues: Volume 21, Number4 Autumn2005
 b^rvtc^k ti\l\?0\r\ Oc?\v\c\?p\

m?'r\C/C'r*?*\?<Vl
J(t?>\rA \s)e\t*\'y<?.*sa
?e>t?\0\t?Q0\t

.. l?l".

4 English inArabic Style forMuslims inMalaysia.

Cheah Wei, a Chinese student fromMalaysia studying at a graphic
design school inNew Zealand, wanted his last project to relate to
establishing himself as a creative designer inMalaysia. He studied
theArabic script and created a new English typeface based on
Arabic forms, it "Arjad." He won the Best Young
calligraphic calling

Designer of 1992 award inMalaysia forhis work.

35
Design Issues: Volume 21, Number4 Autumn2005
 O?) 0 SD
Typography
Roman
?Q, Vf
Kannada Roman

Typography (Jj,oJ?om
Sans Serif Kannada Sans Serif

@03d^
TypegrapfiY
Miscellaneous KannadaMiscellaneous

dJ/OUCWl
oyfwghcifiAu
Script Kannada Script

Typography c^cdjOTd
Egyptian Kannada Egyptian

5 inMajor English Typestyles.

Kannada
Priyanka, a student at the Srishti School ofArt, Design and Tech
in has a mother from Assam and a father from
nology Bangalore,
Kerala. They have settled now inChennai (Madras). She has been
a student educated in Assam, Maharastra, Tamil Nadu, Sri
visiting
Lanka, and now is studying in Karnataka. She chose to write
design
her name in Kannada letters, matching their forms to various English

typeface categories.

36 Design Issues: Volume 21, Number4 Autumn2005

 w& #s ?i? ^m
l?te^ ie^?

?lrllC-?l
gujrati

-esf

?jCt?GH
malyalam

*Jl(e?)
kanada

?Nr<fl
bengali

^ctdl
punjabi

6 Gujarati inMimicry of some Indian Scripts.

u? urdu 'ir Chaitali, a classmate of Priyanka, was educated in an
English
medium school inMumbai (Bombay). Raised by Gujarati parents,
she learned as a second and is quite comfortable
Gujarati language,
with it.She decided towrite her name inGujarati mimicking the
unfamiliar scripts of other Indian languages: Malayalam, Bengali,
Gurumukhi, and Urdu.

37
Design Issues: Volume 21, Number4 Autumn2005
 7 Devanagari in Personalized Writing Style.
Misha, an NID student fromnorthern India with a fluent
writing
skill in created a called "Bahek,"
Devanagari, Devanagari typeface
based on cursive with a reed form in three differ
handwriting pen
ent
weight.

? ?...

&?) &&? [)

t?87?3)8(1

&gl?7$gr?

8 in an One-stroke Form.
Oriya Elegant,
Rachita, another NID student from Orissa, created a and
perfect
in based on handwritten, casual, and continu
elegant typeface Oriya
ous stokes.

38
Design Issues: Volume 21, Number4 Autumn2005
 Evolutionof concepts 9 Kannada Typeface Family in a Fancy Style.
Afterthe formof <5was decided upon,
Aparna, an NID student fromBangalore, knows Kannada by heart
explorationof various styleswas started.This and was excited by thepopular letterformsinKannada on billboards.
involvedvarious pen and calligraphicstyles
She studied the popular trends, and proposed the typeface family
as well as explorationof the formitself.Four
"Ale" based on three different tools and in three weights each.
basic conceptswere selected to be taken
forward,theyare shown at left.

? ? ? ?
Uniformthickness Flaat pen concept (90a) Quill pen concept Reen pen concept
with
curved tilt)(45alefttilt)
(45aright
ending

LD6?Q51?TfDQQjaQ<95i?L.U) {Jl?i?flBLUUi?l?
IDUJI?) <5Bi?lDU?IlLD?T) L?i?LO)a5a)L01aBUL|L?
nrii).Cld?t)Cc1bitl u?Ilau??)
igjfmilgtf
(SiTGuii) CLorrrr
qS\*%L uurrfQ]iDasrTGo?sL?)

LDi?Qai?fD?lL_uum?l Qi?rfl?aBi? a&rfl ctLl_

(95cB6?L?fD^L? U?i?GOLL_<95L_?)
?Xrf)l_?TLDG?.
turra L?^rriDrT lu?t?dos
guSlCirjrrasrr?J
uTaSlLD?T?tL_<95fT6?CTLLL?i?flBL?aflCUUi?oSCiX
U?lcOQi?Q .
CoBfTlq.fr
?tjlb fTfDLi?L?GO
ID6U?T<55L?)u?)?> CLfTfT lDi?G?)U?)l_fT?trjTTL?rT
L?i?o51CosQgL?i?Gurr
Q)]<$tgiTQuji?GLO.
Q<EBm?.ft id ?? Qi?go u?<$n*Ca>iTrT
L?nrQar?npj

10 Tamil Typeface in Reed Pen Forms.

Supriya, who came to the NID from Tamil Nadu, explored all

possible styles in lineal, reed, and quill pens; and then proposed a
text typeface called based on reed forms.
"Supriya" pen

39
Design Issues: Volume 21, Number4 Autumn2005
 needs are different, and
Vernacular/regional quite complex,
troublesome but For
challenging. example:
The signage design for Tirumala, the most popular and

crowded pilgrimage place in the south near Chennai inAndhra

Pradesh, needs information in fivedifferentlanguages. This has been
partly addressed through the use of symbols, although the text still
needs five languages in fivedifferent scripts.
The capital cityofAndhra Pradesh needs tourism signage in

English, Telugu, and Urdu. All threehave theirown script,and Urdu

iswritten from right to left.
The State Bank of India needs a logotype in three languages
for each location: Hindi (national), English (international), and
vernacular (regional). The solution involved designing the logotype
in thirteen and eleven different scripts.
languages

Today, there is a need forunity in diversity. The trend in the

business and academic communities is to accept and use
English
as a working language, so English is becoming the only language
and one can use all over India. Otherwise, one is required to
script
learn both the various and their I am stranded
languages scripts.
between being Indian at heart, but handicapped by thewidely
varied languages and scripts, and yet trying to be with the people
of India.

40 Design Issues: Volume 21, Number4 Autumn2005