The Hindi-fication of a Typeface

A project we worked on last year posed an interesting question. What typeface(s) would you use to convey a sense of Bollywood?

Melbourne's Immigration Museum asked us to design the 2D component of an exhibition called Bollywood Dreams, which featured photographs by Jonathan Torgovnik depicting life behind the scenes of this amazing social phenomenon and mainstay of the Indian film industry. Excerpts of Bollywood films and films about Bollywood films would also be screened. In short – the show was a celebration of the fun, energy and dynamism of Bollywood culture (and a showcase of Torgovniks's great photography). The photos were a given, the colours not difficult to sort out (make them very bright!), but what font to use?

Every typeface we tried seemed too European and Western. The audience for the show was a mix of local Australians and members of the Indian diaspora now living here. If the typeface was 'too Indian' it may not communicate with the local audience. Too Western a typeface and it didn't look Indian enough.

After watching a few Bollywood films with their unique fusion of drama, romance, dance, song, intrigue, mystery, dance, suspense, song, dance and even more dance it became clear that the typeface we should use must convey the hybrid nature of Bollywood films – it too had to be a hybrid. (Or rather, a masala – which is the Hindi word for a mixture of spices. Bollywood films are also sometimes referred to as masala movies).

Bollywood is the "informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based Hindi language film industry in India (Wikipedia)". Examining the local Hindi fonts gave us a few clues as to what our hybrid Indian-Western typeface may look like.

The fonts had flourishes and loops located above each word that was unified by a bar across its top. That was one aspect to be integrated into our hokey trans-cultural type design. But what of a sense of the 'campiness' and exaggerated theatricality of these films from Mumbai? Pussycat (also known as Pussycat Snickers) fit the bill. It conveyed the mood and spirit of Bollywood nicely - plus it was inherently 'loopy' (in more ways than one). Embellishing the typeface with some quasi-Hindi typo-loops would work nicely.

The desired effect of our Hindi-fied typeface was to connote 'India' and the theatricality of Bollywood and to help immerse visitors into a sense of 'I'm in Mumbai/Bollywood'. Those with experience of Mumbai culture may even 'get the gag' with the Hindi type embellishments. The exhibition was to be a riot of Indian colours, featured a huge handpainted movie mural (as you'd see on the streets of Mumbai) and a soundscape of Mumbai street noise – all of which helped contextualise Torgovnik's wonderful photos. There was also a small cinema built into the exhibition complete with aged and worn cinema seats for viewers of the films.

Our litmus test with the type design was to show it to our studio's extended Indian family. My business partner's wife is half-Indian, her father (and our accounts guy) is Indian. Upon unveiling the type design both emitted hearty chuckles – they certainly got it, and subsequent feedback on our redeveloped Hindi-hybrid font has been very positive from both those of the Subcontinent and those from this continent.

But – what of the body text that would be used throughout the exhibition. That also needed to convey a sense of 'Indian-ness' too. Around this time Design Observer linked to a list of great free fonts. One of which was called Fontin, designed by Jos Buivenga. A lovely typeface, highly legible and available in a few weights – it fit the bill perfectly. Its subtle curves and clever details looked great (and vaguely Indian too). It also worked a treat with our Hindi-hybrid typeface. Our Indian type-testing team gave it the nod. Ditto for the director of the museum who also happened to be of Indian background.

Done, time to celebrate with a curry. (A Chicken Tikka Masala please).

Bollywood Dreams runs until 28 January 2007.

Above: the hybrid 'Hindi' font

Above: as used on the main entry mural panel (in gold – of course)

Above, and following inages: used in conjunction with Fontin.

Notes:

'Bollywood Dreams': Bollywood Dreams®, Brisbane, supported event.

More images of the exhibition at our website.

Comments

[Joe Clark]

I really don't think this is as well executed as you think (English words do not use the grave accents you show above the "Hindi" bar, for example). Anyway, while it has apparently gone over well with your test audiences, it is still a kind of vernacular typographic ethnocentrism, sort of like fake Chinese tattoos or chop-suey "Chinese" fonts that look like brushstrokes (which Margaret Cho, always getting right to the point, decries as "super chinky font[s]").

http://hanzismatter.com/
http://www.margaretcho.com/moveon_jokes.htm

[Andrew Haig]

Exactly (well almost) - the hybrid typeface is very much intended to be a contrived, humourous, tongue-in-cheek typographic mediator between 2 different cultures. Done in the best spirit of Bollywood - stick it together and lets see if it works (and maybe you can dance to it!).

But - interestingly, the Indians who see the typeface seem to get a kick out of the (rather silly) double-culture game it plays – not because the message itself is rather unfortunate like in the tattoo examples you mention... with our typeface, our audience is laughing with us not at us. They know that we know that they know...

[Ricardo Cordoba]

Interesting post, Andrew. I don't know if it would have fit your bill, but as I was reading this post I couldn't help thinking about an Indian-flavored family called Mata Hari, designed by Max Kisman.

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/hollandfonts/mata-hari/

http://www.hollandfonts.com/HFM3006.html

[Andrew Haig]

Thanks Ricardo - I knew I should have done a font search under 'transcendental'! Legibility-wise, 'Mata Hari' may be a little difficult for some of the viewers of the exhibition to read (we had to simplify our original approach a bit), but it's a very nice idea. May use on any upcoming Indian projects...

[Gary Lau]

I think you did a pretty good job with the Hindi-hybrid typeface.

While I'm not a big fan of too-stylised fonts or "stereo-types" as I like to call them, the main problems I always find are that they are ugly and illegible (in English). A quick search on my favourite free font site, www.dafont.com, yields nothing as good as what you came up with in my opinion.

And well done on this exhibition, I've seen it prominiently promoted around town recently.

[Mona Bagla]

umhhh, being an Indian...all I can say is, it could have been done a lot better. Yea, I get what they are trying to do, and it is an OK attempt, but at the same time it loses the character of the Hindi alphabets.

If this is to be a "hybrid" or "masala" of the western and the eastern, a certain softness is needed. And putting a band across does not make it a hindi alphabet. It really misses the spices to make it authentically INDIAN.

The other thing that really bothers me is, what people think about India and the sterotype image they have about it. Did you guys really do any research on Mumbai before you started doing this project? The type looks like what was used on those hand made billboards like 100 years ago. India is not like that ANYMORE. It is far more advanced and Hip I should say then what people think it is.

[Andrew Haig]

Quite a bit of research was done on Mumbai type via Google and via Indian friends (well, as much as timeframe and budget – and Google – allowed)... and remember we're not trying to create an authentic Indian typeface - it's merely meant to signify 'India/Mumbai' to a local Australian audience. If an Indian says its 'Ok' - I am very happy with that!

[dale harris]

i went through a very similar process when i was designing the logo for 'bollywood masala' - a label devoted to indian cinema for madman in melbourne.

all in all i must say i love the execution of your type for this project - it is a true masala of both cultures. the fact that it appeals to the tongue-in-cheek, kitch qualities of the work is brilliant. i am a fan.

incidentally if you are interested, you can see my take on custom indian-west-masala type here
http://logopond.com/gallery/detail/6062

[rita]

Having worked in a museum environment for a good part of my working career (all be it in education and programing), I can visualize how difficult a task it would have been to create a culturally sensitive interpretation of an Indian language font. The brief for the project as well as the objectives of such an institution is not only to serve the needs of the diaspora but also to service the other clients of the museum.

How do you carry out such a task in a way to not cause offense or mockery of the cultural group in question and satisfy the needs and objectives of the exhibition which includes concerns such as making the text legible and clear? Designing such a 'phantom' text is no easy task and the end result is not only the end product of the designer but the effort of the entire team.

I'm sure the best possible outcome was arrived at on a modest budget and with the endorsement of the institution in question. The result is what you would call a diluted version of the Hindi language script bordering on stereotyping a 'look'.

The end result is always one where in trying to please everybody - none is served. It leaves me wondering whether the Immigration Museum consulted with an Indian designer - surely there are many about. This should have been a part of the process as far as I can tell however, having been privy to the internal mechanizations of large institutions working with restricted budgets, and tight deadlines, due processes are sometimes overlooked and near enough is often good enough.

I don't mean to cause offense....however I have been to India and Mumbai recently. I agree with Mona Bagla. It is not like that any more. The Mumbai film industry is as sophisticated and as advanced as the American model and is now starting to employ a large overflow of western film makers and graduates from our own institutions. I believe Museum's have a responsibility to all groups they represent and need to consult with members of the community to arrive at their conclusive decisions.

[Andrew Haig]

No offence taken...it's good to get feedback. We would have loved to have consulted with an Indian designer – had there been a budget and time to do so. Also - our typeface was user-tested with Indian people (admittedly, not scores of them) and locals with the resulting typeface being developed (we designed 2 others before arriving at this one). Feedback with the resulting typeface was very good – hard to argue with user testing.

And I'm sure Mumbai is 'not like that' anymore – but that is somewhat irrelevant – we're not trying to create a contemporary Indian typeface – it merely has to suggest the idea of 'India' to the audience of the exhibition.

Interestingly, the photographs in the show are not of contemporary Bollywood - but of the industry/culture from a few years back. The museum's Indian security guards kept telling us the actors shown were 'old stars' not the most recent ones... So a highly contemporary typeface would have been out of step with them (!)

[rita]

I'm looking forward to the show traveling whether it's about 'older' Indian cinema or not however I feel we are so behind with this culture in contemporary terms and that of course has more to do with the way institutions operate and the speed at which they can respond to the world around them. There will always be an 'out of step(ness)' with the great speed at which the Indian culture is changing and developing and the speed of output in the film industry. I fully understand a historical narrative to help develop an understanding of Indian film to promote understanding and learning but why don't we know about the more contemporary films? Why do we fail to engage and bring the exhibition up-to-date and hence reflect that in our presentation methods? Not your call exclusively - rather a combined effort.