Yatrakshar | Major Project Visual Summery

MA Graphic Design |London College of Communication, 2012

Visual Summary

Manosij Sarkar

MA Graphic DesignLondon College of Communication, 2012

| Visual Summary Manosij Sarkar

Visual Summary

Manosij SarkarMA Graphic Design

Tutor: Paul McNeilLondon College of Communication, 2012

Yatrakshar means a set of letters for the journey.It is derived from the Hindi words, “Yatra” and “Akshar”.

Yatra means journey and akshar is letter.

Contents

Introduction

Studying multilingual wordmarks of international brands

Experiment | brand wordmark

Experiment | Typology of transport system

Transport system as a brand

Typology of the mediums used in putting up the signs in Indian transport

Experiment | Bilingual typeface design

Secondary research | stencil projects

Experiment | stencil design

Secondary research | Indian Type Foundry

Secondary research | I love typography, Ralf Herrmann

Experiment | legibility

The prototype

Testing the Stencil

Visual palate for the colour and shape

Towards the outcome

Introduction

The visual summery contains all the visual experiments and the researches that were carried out through the project. It is broadly based on different typologies as the primary research method.

These typologies are supported by visual experiments and secondary researches at different levels.

| Visual Summary Manosij Sarkar04

My research started with the study of multilingual typography in branding; focusing on the changes that occur on the wordmark of international brands when they travel to different parts of the world.

Studying multilingual wordmarks of international brands

MA Graphic Design |London College of Communication, 2012 07

Then I started looking at the international brands that come to India. I could find the only a few brands uses a separate official wordmark for Indian script. Nokia, Vodafone and Starbucks

are among the very few which have an official Devanagari wordmark.

The other numerous international brands who ignore using an original wordmark, and instead they use any random typeface to put up their brand.

Café coffee day; a really nice example of using multilingual wordmark. It is one of the most popular coffee joints in India.

Trying to study the brand identities by breaking down it into three different categories; first: the identities which only have word mark. Second: the identities which have both the symbol and the wordmark and the third: the

identities which only have a symbol and doesn’t use any wordmark along with it. I was trying to figure out in which cases a multilingual wordmark can be more helpful for communication.

Experiment | wordmark

The main experiment is to convert the Latin wordmark of International brands into Devanagari keeping the brand image and the graphical language intact.

I wanted to observe till what extent a Latin text can be converted into Devanagari, I kept the International brands with multilingual wordmark as my examples.

I choose Domino’s because it has a very heavy typeface, which will be really challenging to incorporate into Devanagari.

In the experiment I found that on trying to follow the same weight of the characters as Roman, it became difficult to design the Devanagari characters because of the complexities in the character form.

Trying with different weights of the character.

Creating the Devanagari wordmarks for some of the international brands as an experiment

ResultsThroughout the experiment I have realized it is always not possible to convert any roman wordmark into Devanagari and make it look exactly the same or have the same visual language aspect.

Character weight becomes a major issue. Extra heavy roman characters cannot be converted to Devanagari because of the complexities in the character form.

Calligraphic typefaces become another challenge. The origins of both the scripts

are completely different so the hand written calligraphic style is also not same.

The Serif typefaces also becomes a big problem when they are converted into Devanagari

After doing further research in this area, I started looking further into typography in other aspects of branding; especially I started to look transport system as a brand. I was getting more interested into it because of the use of multiple languages in sign system in Indian transport, which is a really good area to look for.

The use of standardized typefaces in transport service in London and other parts of the world really fascinated me. It influenced me a lot to look deeper into the field of transport.

As an experiment I started relating it to typefaces used in India in transportation service. The First step was making a short typology of different images I collected on Indian transportation (hand written and digital)

Unbranded transport services

Branded transport services

Metro(Underground)

Airport

Buses Local train(overground)

Informationon the bus

Informationon the train

Platformsignage

Othersignage

Bus stopsignage

Its an approximate ratio between branded and unbranded transport service based on the number of public transport system existing.

Experiment | Typology of Indian transport

Parking boards

Bus stop signs ‘Best’ bus logo

Way-finding signs

Bus route sign

Station name plates

School aheadCrossing

Station name plate (2nd type)

Variety in the use of multiple languages

Studying the use of multiple languages in wayfinding and transport system in London.

Bi-lingual typography in Tokyo Metro and road sign systems in Beijing & Seoul (facing page).

Transport system as a brand

Just like any other brand, transport system also holds equal brand value and specific guidelines. And in these criteria again typography becomes a very noticeable subject. Transport for London

and the Johnston typeface is one of the biggest transport brand in the world. The Johnston typeface has become an image for London and its definitely the strongest part of the brand.

The Helvetica used in New York Underground has created its own identity of the place.

Metron typeface which was specially designed for the transport in Czechoslovakia in 1970s but later by 1985 it was replaced by Helvetica. Purposefully Metron is not the most

ideal one to be used as a transit typeface but it worked a lot better as an identity or image of the nation.

I started looking into smaller parts of London, specially the Boroughs. Although they work in smaller parts, they have a specific branding which is followed very strongly. It is really

interesting how the brand and the typefaces are followed in such a standardized way.

Typology of the technologies/mediums used in putting up the signs in Indian transport

Dot metrix display Retroreflectors

Print Stencil Hand painted

Experiment | Bilingual type design

Another experiment I did was on multilingual typeface design. There are numerous complicated situations which come when we design a Devanagari

version of a Latin typeface because of the huge number of Devanagari alphabet and also the complex characteristics of Devanagari letter forms. The situation becomes even more complex when we are working on a Latin typeface which is itself complicated.

I selected the London 2012 typeface as it quite a unique example of display typeface and obviously one of the most viewed in last one year. I tried making a devanagari version of it.

It has a very rough but simplified geometric shape which became a challenge while creating working on some of the loopy letterforms and it became hard to create with the same style.

Finding stencil the most appropriate way towards my aim and objective, I started exploring it further on the it is used in Indian transport. Then I also looked at the other places as well the processes these are used.

Stencils used in London transport

Secondary research

“Type Attack”. This is a stencil of six shapes and can be used to write all the 26 letters of Latin script.

“Tabletto Stencil” which is a set of different shapes that can be used to write different scripts and shapes influenced me very much. Another experimental stenciled typeface

On similar path I tried to simplify it one step ahead by experimenting with six basic shapes and combining them in different ways to produce Latin in upper

& lower case along with Devanagari script. Although it can be used for making alphabets of random style(the way the used wants it to be), it has also got grooves

Experiment | Stencil

on either sides which can be used to make a rough guideline for Baseline, x height, ascender and descended.

Secondary research

Letter anatomy guidelines on Kohinoor typeface by Indian Type Foundry.

Ralf Herrmann ‘s website explaing things about transport typeface and its legibility

Secondary research

Experiment | legibility

Experimenting legibility tests by blurring and over-glowing the text with different typefaces

Transport orBased on transport

UK | TransportItaly | Alfabeto Normale

Spain | Carreta ConventionalPortugal | Transport

Denmark | Dansk VejtavleskriftGreece | Transport

FHWAalso known as Highway Gothic

CanadaAustralia

New ZealandBrazil

Mexico

DIN 1451

Germany

Hangil

SouthKorea

Zhong Hei ti

Austria

L1 and L2

France

Clearviewand FHWA

ANWB-Uu

Netherlands

Tratex

Sweden

Tablicadrogowa

Poland

CanadaAustralia

New ZealandBrazil

Mexico

DIN 1451

Germany

Hangil

SouthKorea

Zhong Hei ti

Austria

L1 and L2

France

Clearviewand FHWA

ANWB-Uu

Netherlands

Tratex

Sweden

Tablicadrogowa

Poland

CanadaAustralia

New ZealandBrazil

Mexico

DIN 1451

Germany

Hangil

SouthKorea

Zhong Hei ti

Austria

L1 and L2

France

Clearviewand FHWA

ANWB-Uu

Netherlands

Tratex

Sweden

Tablicadrogowa

Poland

The major typefaces that are used around the world in transport and road signage. the ‘Transport typegace’ is one of the most used typefaces around the world.

The prototype

A detailed description has been given on the major project report and major project outcome.

In the beginning the basic typefaces that I had developed based on ‘Transport’ and ‘Shree Dev’ had round edges. They are more suitable for laser cutting, but

as the typeface will be majorly be used as a stencil, round edges will possess a problem when developing it.

he stencil and arranged the bridges broadly based on the hand movement of the hand written Devanagari script. Later I placed them evenly on the letterform

on the basis of usability; that is using it more on the places where the bridges can hold the counters firmly while being used under different condition.

Slightly tilted bridges have been used in some of the Latin alphabets which emphasize on the minor details of the basic letterform and hence increase legibility

The relation between the basic letterforms and their stenciled versions in both scripts. It also features the minor changes in the letterform that comes after applying the bridges.

Stencil test

I used the stencil with different techniques, especially with brush and sponge roller.

Then I tried different surfaces. Using a brush always gives a smudgy result, whereas a sponge roller gives a more crisp finish.

Visual palate for the colour and shape. Saffron and the warm shades of red becomes one of the most prominent colours in Indian context, especially

Maharashtra. These shades being involved in almost everything starting from culture, art, belief, celebration, food, spices etc. beco mes as an icon. I have chosen a deeper shade (Indian

red) so that the text (in White / Chrome) becomes more prominent and readable. A lighter saffron or chrome accompanies the main colour to make it more vibrant.

I have used a chiseled shape graphic form throughout the transport system as it goes well with the stenciled typeface (which has a bold look and less delicate) and also adopts the feel of the ancient

iconic coins/seal of Chatrapati Shivaji (Maratha Emperor)and the architecture of those eras. This connects to the culture and belief of Maharashtra strongly

I went through a wide variety of shapes for the platform board; the basic intention was to make it look bolder and prominent in the crowded platforms.

Although the existing graphic form is identical to the British Underground

symbol, but the graphical form has been used for more than 60 years now. It has become a part of the daily commuters life, so without changing the whole image completely, I tried to work on a new graphical form with a similar flavor.

University of the Arts London

Yatrakshar | Major Project Visual Summery

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