The art of designing letters, typography, is something we encounter daily, yet often overlook its profound impact on our reading, understanding, and interaction with the world. We talk to Mumbai-based Typographer and Type Designer Tanya George on how she got into the niche field, her type walks that explores letters in the vintage city of Mumbai, and her interaction with different languages.
INTEREST IN TYPOGRAPHY
I’ve always been interested in the subject. I want to say since school, I was always scribbling lyrics and making doodles. I ended up going to JJ Institute of Applied Arts, where I specialized in typography as an elective and after I worked for a bit, I realized I wanted to do type design, so I went into the masters and then I was figuring out how to make sense of this master’s degree and how to put it to use in a meaningful way. It sort of progressed into this multifaceted role that I have now as a designer, where I design fonts and graphic stuff. I also write about it and create artworks around it. I find different ways to express my love for the subject.
TYPE WALKS IN MUMBAI
The type walks aren’t my idea for sure. They’re something that I know have been done abroad by other people. I know other people in the type community have done it. And it was something that I was toying around with doing here in Bombay because I know the city, this is the longest I’ve stayed in any place in the country.
So I currently have about seven walks in different parts of the city. There are outdoor walks where I’m walking through a marketplace. It’s one of the oldest marketplaces in the city and there’s a historic aspect to it. I get to talk about what this might have been once upon a time. Signs are very old, they’ve been around from the 1800s if not older. But that changes the moment I do an indoor walk inside the St. Thomas’s Cathedral, that transforms into something that is a lot more personal. People have left their memorials inside, highlighting people’s distinguished offerings to the city. There’s also interesting typographical oddities that were there once upon a time but are no longer in use. So it really varies from the walk to walk.
THE GLOTTOSAURUS
Gallery XXL showcased my first piece of art that I created. It’s a kinetic mobile. So you can interact with the piece—it’s called Glottosaurus. I translated the word ‘tongue’ in three languages and so you’re balancing these three languages on sort of cantilevers. And they’re rotating as well, sort of how the tongue would articulate these sounds inside a mouth. It was my idea to while creating that artwork emphasizes on the many tongues that I speak and how I have to balance that as a speaker, a reader and a writer. Hence the balancing act. That’s something that I try to explore. I’m very excited to be part of the Sans Sentense at Gallery XXL’s permanent space up there in Bombay.
This is an exclusive excerpt from our March EZ. To read the entire article and more such pieces, follow the link here.
Words Paridhi Badgotri
Photography (for signage pictures) Aashim Tyagi
