Ishan Khosla - The Typecraft Initiative | University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) India
Typecraft Initiative develops a range of display typefaces based on the rich crafts and tribal arts of India. While the end product is a font, the goal of the initiative goes much further. Typecraft is interested in raising larger socio-geopolitical issues such as gender and minority rights through the creation of its typefaces. Working on letters with women in a largely patriarchal society — where more boys are sent to school than girls — makes a statement by reinforcing connections between letters and women which sometimes leads to changes, even if small, in these communities. Each community can be identified by their unique use of motifs and icons manifested in the crafts they make and wear. Typecraft is then a call to action both symbolically and practically, to raise questions about marginalized communities, their identities, and the role of women, who, through their crafts, shape and reshape this identity.