Tanglish: 36 Days of Type
Project Scope: Type Design, Graphic Design
36 Days of Type is a project inviting designers, illustrators and graphic artists to express their particular interpretation of the letters and numbers of the Latin alphabet. The mission is to explore new boundaries of letterforms, where participants are challenged to design a letter or a number each day for 36 consecutive days, in order to represent the same symbol from thousand different perspectives. It's a project that aims to be a space for creation around typography and its endless graphic possibilities.
Outcome
The 36 Days of Type project was accomplished by designing the 36 characters (26 letters and 10 numbers) of the Latin alphabet, theming the designs around the Tamil language’s “Brahmi” script and christening it with the name “Tanglish” – a portmanteau born out of the words “Tamil” & “English”.
Research & Planning
Scouting through various “36 Days of Type” projects uncovered some hidden gems with an Indian touch, where the Latin script was customized to “feel” Indian. These projects served as the foundation for formulating a unique and vivid idea.
Further observations indicated that the Latin script was customized to make it look native to India, which gave rise to the question: Could there be an amalgamation of a native Indian language’s script into the Latin script and bring out the best of both worlds?
My mother tongue, Tamil, was chosen as the test subject for the same. Emphasis is laid on the intimacy since I possessed no knowledge of reading and writing the Brahmi script until very recently, owing to my childhood upbringing in the city of Mumbai, where Hindi and Marathi dominate the lands.
Process
Blending the scripts of two distinctly different scripts was a challenging process, as the Brahmi script is characterized by rounded markers and single-stroked letters, which is quite opposite to the Latin script’s virtue of being straight, geometric and written with multiple strokes.
The union of both scripts was achieved by fusing the signature stroke characteristic and rounded markers of the Brahmi script into the Latin alphabets. It was visibly evident that the scripts coalesced together to retain the discerning characteristics of the English alphabet, whilst identifying the influence of the Brahmi script having crept into the typography.
An intentional decision to make the typography look “jagged” elevates the ancient flavour of the Brahmi script. The messaging of opposites attract was depicted by this jaggedness on a digital medium, usually used to achieve refinement.
A vintage colour palette splashed on the canvas resonates with the earliest media of paper and palm leaves used for writing. Wavy patterns forming the background are akin to the venation of leaves.
These combinations of design decisions and elements further drive home the idea of juxtaposing the ancient and the modern.
Final Visuals
