When he was doing the lettering for the tasks of classmates in boarding faculty in Rajasthan, Satya Rajpurohit had no inkling that this ability would lead him to move a design agency that has developed 450 font households for 20 writing techniques on this planet.

“I loved the artistic course of however didn’t but perceive that this was a elementary side of sort design. Later, I turned fascinated with radium quantity plates for automobiles and bikes, which led me to experiment with customized letter shapes. I’d provide this service to my family and friends free of charge simply so I might see my lettering getting used. This was my unintended first step into public typography,” says the unassuming 40-year-old.

Satya co-founded Indian Kind Foundry (ITF) in 2009 in Ahmedabad.

“We began ITF with only one font household (Fedra Hindi). Since then, we’ve produced over 450 font households, together with 300 retail font households out there for licensing and round 150 customized and open-source fonts. A few of our hottest fonts are Kohinoor, Volte, Akhand, Poppins, Satoshi, Normal Sans, Swatzer, Teko, and Hind,” he says.

Remodeling typographic panorama with Indian languages

The agency clocks an annual income of near USD 2 million (Rs 16.48 crore roughly) and has round 300 purchasers from Fortune 500 firms. Amongst its purchasers are giants — reminiscent of Apple, Google, Samsung, Sony, Amazon, Hyundai, Unilever, Tata Play, Star Sports activities, SBI, Zee TV, Mahindra, Disney, Kotak, Discovery, and Aaj Tak. 

In 2010, Satya acquired the distinguished ‘SoTA Catalyst Award’ offered by the Society of Typographic Aficionados. He has been featured in Fortune India’s ‘40 Below 40’ listing for 3 consecutive years (2016, 2017 and 2018). In 2017, he was additionally on GQ India’s ‘50 Most Influential Younger Indians’ listing.

In the present day, ITF is recognised as one of many main sort foundries globally, having developed fonts for non-Indian languages — together with Thai, Cyrillic (Russian), Greek, Hebrew, Sinhalese and Korean. 

Nonetheless, what makes ITF particular is its deal with Indian languages.

“Our mission was to create a complete assortment of premium fonts for Indian languages, pushed by a want for cultural preservation, innovation, and addressing the wants of India’s various linguistic heritage,” says Satya. 

The organising of ITF was the results of a collaboration with a Dutch typographer, Peter Bilak. 

Peter supplied him the possibility to design a Devanagari (Hindi) font for his firm. “When this font was full, we looked for foundries that would publish it. Nonetheless, there have been no foundries in India at the moment for Indian languages. This realisation prompted us to launch our personal foundry with only one font in our library,” he relates.

The corporate secured Star Plus as certainly one of its first purchasers, who licensed its first Hindi font.

The huge linguistic variety of India, with over 11 official writing techniques and quite a few languages, was largely underserved by the worldwide typographic business. Satya and Bilak seen the shortage of high quality and selection in fonts out there for Indic languages when in comparison with the intensive choices for Latin scripts.

Creating fonts for Indian languages is more difficult than doing so for world languages, says Satya, as a result of Indian languages, not like Latin, are complicated to attract and have bigger character units that require a number of months, and typically even years, to design. 

Moreover, it’s arduous to seek out seasoned designers who’re comfy with each the language and the sort design. The ‘matras’ in Indian languages add to the complexity.

‘I can’t think about a single day not serious about fonts’

Satya’s dad and mom wished him to change into a health care provider; so he spent two years in Kota however did not clear the exams. That’s when he determined to pursue his curiosity in artwork as a substitute. He joined Chandigarh Faculty of Nice Arts, and whereas finding out there, he discovered in regards to the Nationwide Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. He then secured admission to the distinguished design institute.

“The 2 years at Kota had been the worst of my life. I used to be not a superb pupil at college besides in artwork. Even when I had cleared the medical exams and change into a health care provider, I’d have been a horrible physician as a result of it was not one thing I wished to be,” says Satya with a rueful smile.

At NID, he acquired interested by movement graphics, one utility of which is creating titles and credit for movies. Nonetheless, right here serendipity performed a key position. He “stumbled upon an surprising alternative” in his third yr — an internship in sort design at Linotype, the pioneer in making high-quality typefaces.

“That have was transformative. In these three months, I delved into the world of typography, gaining an understanding of its significance and intricacies. The expertise ignited my ardour for sort design and reshaped my profession trajectory,” explains Satya.

His internships at Linotype in Germany and Dalton Maag within the UK had been pivotal in making ready him to arrange his personal enterprise. They taught him the essential mix of precision and creativity wanted in sort design.

“I can’t think about a single day not serious about fonts. A font is a set of letters, numbers and symbols, all dressed up in a sure model. Once I design fonts, it’s like I’m designing outfits for phrases to allow them to categorical completely different feelings and concepts,” shares Satya.

Fonts have long-term worth. For example, Helvetica was first revealed in 1957, but this font stays related even right now. ITF develops each conventional fonts (used for textual content in books and newspapers) and experimental or show fonts.

Conventional fonts, reminiscent of Instances New Roman and Arial, prioritise readability and flexibility. In distinction, experimental fonts transcend performance and embrace revolutionary shapes, ideas and designs. These fonts prioritise creative expression and invigorate visible design. They’ve numerous character and are utilized in headlines, logos and posters. For sports activities occasions, kids’s books, and movie posters, ‘grunge’ (messy textual content) is used at instances, he explains. 

The corporate’s hottest font is the Kohinoor sequence designed by Satya. “Earlier than Kohinoor, there was no font that would help all Indian languages. For example, in an airport in Gujarat, we’d like signage in three languages — English, Hindi, and Gujarati. Fonts in a household are aesthetically constant. Apple has licensed the Kohinoor household. Should you get a message in Hindi or Gujarati from an Apple system, the font might be from our Kohinoor sequence,” says Satya.

By the way, the Kohinoor font household is on show completely in London’s The Design Museum. 

The inspirations and improvements driving ITF

One of many largest challenges ITF confronted was the shortage of expert sort designers in India. College students and interns had been skilled and added to the staff. In the present day. the staff of 25 members are unfold throughout the globe.

One other vital hurdle was cultivating a marketplace for fonts. Extra individuals, together with college students, at the moment are prepared to spend money on high quality fonts, recognising their affect on the effectiveness of communication and branding.

The costs of ITF fonts vary from simply Rs 2,500 for a one-user desktop licence to a number of lakhs a yr for a big enterprise licence.

“At ITF, we provide free licences to college students and academics, aiming to help training and nurture the subsequent era of designers. In 2021, we launched ‘Fontshare’, offering 25% of our retail font library free of charge, to make high-quality fonts accessible to everybody. Fontstore was envisaged as a market however presently, we promote solely our personal fonts. High quality and royalty are two points that come up if we promote fonts developed by others,” he explains.

Aside from growing fronts from scratch, ITF additionally acquires fonts. Lately, it has acquired a number of impartial foundries. “We’re on the cusp of launching a brand new umbrella-type foundry that may unite all our manufacturers. Our aim is to develop our retail library. A key focus for us is guaranteeing our library is inclusive, representing not simply English or Indian languages but in addition these which can be endangered and fewer represented worldwide.

Speaking about his inspirations within the sphere of typography, Satya names Adrian Frutiger — the Swiss sort designer identified for his readability and performance in fonts like Univers and Frutiger — and Herb Lubalin — a artistic typographer who infused letters with emotion and narrative. Eric Gill’s harmonious mix of traditional and trendy kinds, evident in typefaces like Gill Sans and Perpetua, has additionally guided his method to design.

These pioneers have formed his understanding of how sort can talk past phrases, mixing artistry with utility, says Satya.

Satya is the eldest amongst three brothers and one sister. His dad and mom have settled down in Jodhpur. He’s blissful that his profitable enterprise has enabled him to repay a major debt for his father and help his sister’s pursuit of a design profession. Presently single, he has been residing in Ahmedabad since 2004 when he joined NID.

He enjoys classical, Sufi, and Rajasthani folks music. Whereas he used to play sports activities at school, right now he often finds time for video video games. He likes watching films, principally Bollywood dramas and comedies. He prefers low-budget movies, which don’t characteristic massive stars — a latest favorite is ‘12^th Fail’.

Relating to work-life steadiness, Satya says, “Operating my very own enterprise affords me the flexibleness to work by myself phrases. Additionally, I discover immense pleasure in what I do, which blurs the traces between work and leisure for me.”

Edited by Pranita Bhat