Week 22/2024

The week has been a bit of a bummer: some news, which Amber and I have been waiting for months, finally arrived, but didn’t go our way. We were disappointed, sure, however, it is also a relief because at least we know now.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I had a lot of client meetings and presentations last week, and now I am waiting to hear feedback and comments to move forward with a couple of projects. I made reasonable progress on the project I was falling behind on, and thankfully, the back-and-forth has been quick, so we’ve moved work along even if we are not quite there yet.

2.

I had a video call with Tanya on Wednesday. It had been a really long time since we had a catch-up like this, and I am glad we finally did it. Our main agenda was to discuss a potential Typostammtisch workshop around India Street Lettering, and we were able to flesh out the core of the idea. I am excited to facilitate this once she gets the monthly events running again.

Noopur and I also met online for a chat to plan an art project we want to do together. We’ve made a plan we like, and we start this month.

3.

One mid-week afternoon, there was a storm and some showers that brought temperatures down, if only temporarily. As soon as the rains stopped, Amber and I rushed to our neighbourhood park for a walk and some birdwatching. We saw about 20 species, and I was especially happy to have seen a pair of black winged stilts, and some wire-tailed swallows. The highlight, though, was a greater coucal that we were able to observe properly for a few minutes before it went back into hiding.

4.

In preparation for applying for a grant, I took stock of my newspaper collection. I am not sure when or how it really happened, but the collection is over 600 strong now, and around half of them are newspapers from around India. I only managed to catalogue the Indian newspapers last week, but hope to work on the rest soon, maybe during my summer break.

5.

I’ve been feeling very anxious about my flights to and back from Barcelona, which are less than a month away now. There are no direct flights between India and Spain, and I hate layovers, and the stress that comes with check-in luggage. I am trying to see if I can pack for the entire trip in my large backpack and keep it all under 7.5 kgs. After a bit of a trial, that does seem possible, but let’s see.

6.

On the weekend, Amber and I went for a screening of Luis Buñuel’s surrealist film El Ángel Exterminador (The Exterminating Angel) at Red House, a relatively new arts venue that I have been keen on checking out. The movie was intense, and the food delicious. I hope we make it back there for more events.

Week 21/2024

The heatwave continues and I am trying to make the post of my time spent indoors these days.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

It was a steady work week. I didn’t have a lot of meetings, and so I managed to move things along on a couple of projects. Over on the TypeTogether front, my colleague, Joancarles, breathed some cool OpenType life into a Devanagari project I am working on, and I am very excited to see where that’s headed.

2.

I find that I’ve dropped the ball on the social media front lately, having missed posting the results of my workshop at IIHS two weeks ago, as well as some new work that I had planned to share this year. I also have not managed to come up with a concrete plan for how I want to use social media for India Street Lettering. Instagram is a pain, but I realise that I have got to share work there to stay on people’s radars and generate more business. Knowing this doesn’t always act like the motivation I need it to be, though.

3.

Amber and I were back at swimming pool this week, and it has been good to spend alternate evenings swimming. The summer has put running and birdwatching completely out of our schedules, but I am thankful that we at least have this.

4.

I took up two LEGO print making projects: one alone to make a small Devanagari print that spelled out गर्मी, and another one with Amber, where we made a white-throated kingfisher. With a push over the weekend, I also finished reading A Gentleman in Moscow.

5.

For one reason or another, work on the next batch of India Street Lettering zines has been delayed for the past couple of months. I put in some time over the weekend and if all goes to plan, I should be able to send them out for test prints before the week is up.

6.

Along with the solo card games I play regularly, this week Amber and I have been playing cooperative Jenga. Our best so far is 26⅓ levels, but more importantly, we’ve been having a lot of fun. Interestingly, we have done better when we haven’t strategised beforehand. Just goes to show that we really haven’t got the pulse of the game yet.

Week 20/2024

It is 45°C here, and I am cloistered indoors trying to escape the heat. It has been a quieter, slow week and I am grateful for that. I think the Bangalore trip and a break from home helped me reset my mental health a little, and be bit more at peace. I even managed to do a bit of embroidery on Sunday afternoon.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

We started the week with our bedroom airconditioner bust. It had been giving trouble since last week but the sudden rise in temperature made it pretty difficult to sleep without it. We slept in my old room at my parents’ one night and our own guest room for a couple more before it was fixed.

2.

I got the last of my dental work done, and my smile has become less crooked. I had chipped one of my incisors in a little accident at home years ago, but a combination of fear and failure of finding a good dentist had kept me from getting it fixed. While it is not odd to see myself look different in the mirror, I am still getting used to having something new and alien in my mouth.

3.

The meeting I was nervous about last week went well. The client asked some pertinent questions, and had very valid feedback. Now I am waiting for more inputs from them before I can prepare a new draft of the design. The project extension I had pitched for also got green-lit, and I spent a couple of hours brainstorming ideas. Over at TypeTogether, I can see the end of the tunnel for a writing and editing exercise I have been involved with for the last few months. Even though I know we will start addressing other parts of the same project right after, I’ll be glad when this component is finished. Finally, I’ve been drawing Art Deco letters for a commission, and that is giving me a lot of joy.

4.

We had my parents over on Saturday night for a potluck dinner, and to play the demo of Fishbowl together.

5.

On Amber’s recommendation, I started reading Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow. So far, so good, but I can sense that the writing style will begin to grate as I go on. I’m also watching Monk on Netflix. It is the perfect kind of show to fill the silences while I work to keep me from getting distracted. The IPL is reaching its end, and this year, despite myself, I have become deeply invested in the fate of the Royal Challengers Bangalore, and so I am delighted that they’ve beaten the odds to make the play-offs.

Week 19/2024

I am bone tired and the week hasn’t even begun. But I want to take a moment to mark the fact that this is my twenty-sixth week writing these notes. Sure I missed a fortnight due to a family health scare, but I am rather proud of sticking to this habit for half a year.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Most of last week was a daze as I was trying to catch up with work. I felt over-extended, fragile and desperately needing a break. I started work on the first round of a new lettering commission, and began putting things together in a presentation for the client. In the last couple of years, I’ve got better at communicating what I am doing during meetings and I want to keep that up. I have a nagging feeling that exchanges with this particular client could prove to be challenging so I really don’t want to miss the mark in my preparation. I also did some more work on a project that started a couple of weeks ago, expanding the character set and refining the composition and illustrations. Despite feeling quite stuck, I kept at it longer than I usually would have and I think I made some breakthroughs.

2.

Despite myself, I prepared and shared a quote for some graphic design and typography work to go with a couple of typeface families I am designing. I am desperately craving a break from work, but it seemed too good an opportunity to let go. I would, after all, love the chance to make my typefaces sing, if I can.

3.

The highlight of the week was my super short trip to Bangalore. I was there for less than two days, just enough time to attend the speakers’ dinner for City Scripts, facilitate my workshop at the festival, and grab coffee with some friends. I was quite nervous about the workshop because it was a new idea, but I think it went well enough. In hindsight, I feel like my introduction could have been more focused on what we were doing rather than on the general shortcomings of the design canon. I also wonder if I can introduce some materials in the workshop that help participants understand the history they are reinventing a bit better. It was excellent to have the Aksharaya calligraphy manuals on hand, though, and I am thankful that Sarang was able to send me a new set at very short notice. The folks at IIHS had already set up my little exhibition before I got to Bangalore and it was gratifying to be able to see it in person. When I went, more than half the free film zines that were up for grabs were gone and that made me super happy. There was so much excellent stuff happening at the festival, and I wish I could have spent more time there attending talks and panels, and meeting folks.

4.

I finally met Pooja and Yadu at the festival, and ended up spending quite a bit of time with Yadu and Namrata at the dinner, which was lovely. I also got the chance to have a small chat with Heta Pandit, and I met Hari, who works with her and helps run the Champaca store in Goa. Hari immediately reminded me of one of Amber’s closest friends and that was nice.

After the workshop, and before heading off to the airport, I squeezed in a coffee with Noopur and Kenneth. Even though Noopur and I worked together on making the Pixel/Play workshop happen last month, we hadn’t had a chance to just hang out and chat, and it was wonderful to be able to do just that. While at Nerlu Café, we ran into Aarika, Pratul and his parents, which was a happy coincidence. I hadn’t been able to figure out a way to meet them on this trip, and in a way our serendipitous run-in was even better than a planned rendezvous. It made me feel that even though we live in different cities, maybe that is not so far after all.

With Pooja, Namrata and Yadu at City Scripts

5.

The two solo flights I took were the perfect time to get some reading in. On my way to Bangalore, I read Jordan Mechner’s graphic memoir Replay. I was hesitant to read about the holocaust right now, but he tells the story of his family beautifully. I only wish there was more about his game making journey in the book. I sort of made up for that by reading Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow on the way back. Video games and game design has been on my mind a lot lately, and for good reason. Rhea and Prateek released the demo for their game Fishbowl last week, and I’ve been telling anyone who’d listen to go play it.

Week 18/2024

I started the week on the back foot, succumbing to a fever on Wednesday afternoon. I had been feeling off-colour for days so it wasn’t unexpected, but it sure was badly-timed. For weeks now, I can sense that I am over-worked but there are a few projects simmering away right now, so an overhaul of the balance of things will have to wait at least a couple of months.

Running a part-time independent practice is hard, and I think it becomes harder when there are multiple small-to-medium sized projects running together rather one large one. The code-switching between projects keeps becoming progressively harder, even if they technically require the same number of work hours. Make no mistake, I am very grateful for the work that has come my way in the last year or so. They have all been projects that I whole-heartedly wanted to do, but keeping so many balls up in the air has been tough, and has become tougher as the months have gone by. It has also taken all the time away from my self-initiated work, like the newsletter and zines. I realise that it is all a champagne problem, especially because I already have a stable income irrespective, but I want to build better frameworks for myself for the future. Rest and play are more important to me now than they were, say, ten years ago. As is quality time spent with loved ones.

While I was sick, I listened to quite a few episodes of Hello, Type Friends and Ohno Radio. Hearing about other folks dealing with similar challenges of work-life balance and building financially and creatively sustainable practices was a small comfort.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Right before I fell sick, I was able to announce my workshop at City Scripts on social media. Quite honestly, I was overwhelmed by the response I received, and it made me feel like I, perhaps, will be able to run this workshop more than once, which was my hope for the idea.

2.

Alongside the workshop, I am also putting together a display of photographs and provocations from India Street Lettering in the form of a small exhibition, which will also have a station to watch Letter by Letter, the film that Harshay and I made about the street lettering around MG Road. Thankfully I had done most of the preparation work early so I was able to send off the exhibition material to IIHS on time.

3.

I had a couple of dental appointments. The one that I was dreading went absolutely smoothly, and the one I was wholly unafraid of had a hiccup. So it goes, I suppose. I am supposed to go back one last time this week to round off all the overdue dental work I had been postponing.

4.

On Saturday, the wood type I had purchased last week arrived. It all came in one carton and mixed up, so I have to slowly make time to organise and catalogue all of it before I can think of a fun mini-project to do with them. Maybe it can be something that my Dad and I can work on together.

5.

Some of my working hours this week have gone into drawing alternates and writing OpenType features for a script face that I am working on. Working on that was a sobering reminder that my health is not quite back yet.

6.

I spent an excruciating couple of hours doing tax-related errands: resending documents for my digital signature renewal, addressing my accountant’s queries about the book-keeping from the last financial year for the upcoming tax filing, and preparing materials for the monthly GST filing. Over the last two years, I have tried to be as meticulous about these things, trying not to let this administrative work get sidelined entirely. I have even tried to find some joy in doing it was a monthly ritual where I bring order to chaos. But it just has not stopped being a gigantic pain that I constantly feel behind on.

Week 17/2024

It is summer, the general elections are in full swing, and I find myself buried deep in work.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

The highlight of last week was finding a great dentist in the neighbourhood. The dental clinic of the doctor my family used to visit before the pandemic had steeply deteriorated on the hygiene scale, so we were in a fix. Both Amber and my Mom also suffer from travel sickness so it was imperative to find someone nearby. We tried a new doctor on the recommendation of a neighbour, and she turned out to be very kind and competent. Silly as it sounds, I am scared of dental interventions so the next few weeks are going to be about summoning the courage to get a couple of overdue treatments.

2.

On Friday, we voted. Surprisingly, there was a polling centre in the club house of our colony so it was a particularly easy affair. Later, Amber and I joined my parents for lunch out. We are building a new tradition of driving to Delhi to get some food after casting our votes.

3.

I purchased three sets of Latin wood type on a whim. Someone winding down their print shop in Bangalore reached out to me asking if I would be interested in virgin wood type they were looking to sell. I wasn’t entirely sure, but Amber encouraged me to get them even if I didn’t have concrete plans for them yet. I’ve been reading about how I can make most of wood type without a press, and I’m excited to see how I can combine them with linocut and LEGO printing.

4.

Towards the end of the week, I made a push to complete the character set of a design for a typeface commission, and I was able to share a beta font with the client.

My workshop at City Scripts 2024 was announced. I’m debuting a new idea at this workshop, initiating a collaborative speculative conversation that explores how Latin letterforms could look if we break away from limiting Western traditions, and consider how they may react to Indic influences. It has been a lot of reading and note-taking to prepare for the workshop, and I hope to have all my material ready by early next week.

On Monday, I had the first design meeting for a lettering commission, and I am very happy that the client not only liked the options I presented, but also picked the direction they would like to use.

Work has been intense at TypeTogether. I have two completely different kinds of tasks of equal priority running in parallel, and I’m not ashamed to admit that code-switching has been difficult sometimes.

5.

I dragged myself out of my reading slump on Sunday to pick up Mirion Malle’s So Long Sad Love. Graphic novels are my trusted remedy for reading blocks. So Long Sad Love deals with the challenging issue of learning that one’s partner has harassed someone in the past. It is beautifully written and drawn, but I felt that it ended abruptly and on too positive a note.

Week 16/2024

The ups and downs of last week kept me from writing these notes so far, but better something than nothing.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

It was a rough week emotionally. I was hurt by a friend’s actions, and my attempt to communicate that to them failed spectacularly.

2.

In better news, I learned that Primarium won a couple of prizes at the Indigo Design Awards: one for digital design for social change, and another for the design of its website.

3.

I bought new ink pads, and spent Sunday afternoon making a couple of modular Devanagari prints using LEGO.

Amber and I’ve been able to make something of a regular swimming schedule. That night after our swim, we realised that a local pizza place had set up a temporary oven just a few paces away. They were making fresh, if somewhat boring, pizzas. Still wet, we ate hot pizzas by the poolside.

4.

It has been steady work on the Matra Type front. I finished drawing the first drafts for a lettering commission. For another one, I’ve been involved in a protracted conversation to get the paperwork in place. There is a yet-to-be-announced workshop and display I have to put together for mid-May, and I got started on its skeleton so I can prepare material and ship things off to the venue well in advance.

Week 15/2024

I find it tough to get back the week notes train on time once it is delayed, so I am only sitting down to write these two days past when I should have.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Along with Amber, I spent most of the week of the 10th in Bangalore. I was there to teach two workshops: one at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, where incidentally, Prateek studied; and another public one about pixel type at the Underline Center. With the first one, I tried to share my own experiences and methodologies behind documenting and studying street lettering in India and making zines with the students.

It was a bit of a task to carry books and other material all the way from Delhi for these, but I think it was ultimately worth it. One of the participants of the pixel type workshop messaged me later to say that it was like living through one of my newsletter issues as a live experience, and that really made my day. Of course, this particular workshop would have been impossible without all the support that Noopur provided in the run-up and on the day, as well as Rasagy, who played both host and helper. It is truly amazing what you can do if you have supportive folks to bolster you.

2.

Despite being on a pretty hectic schedule, I managed to squeeze in some time to meet folks in Bangalore — coffee with Pranav one evening and Radhika another afternoon, dinner with Pratul and Aarika, and meeting Namrata, who was sweet enough to drop by towards the end the pixel type workshop to say hello.

Amber and I ate at some of our old favourites in Indiranagar like Chinita and Paris Panini. We also tried the Goan fare at Klaa Kitchen, where we grabbed not one but two meals.

On Sunday, our last day in Bangalore, we spent a quiet morning at the relatively new Museum of Art & Photography. I was interested in catching their latest exhibit on postcards from the 20th century. It was small and intimate, and while I would have loved to learn more about the design and production of the postcards, I quite enjoyed it. The highlight of the visit was being able to experience Jim Lambie’s installation Zobop.

3.

The last couple of external presentations at our weekly TypeTogether meetings have been pretty great. We had Petra Dočekalová talk about a script typeface development project, and Abeera Kamran about Urdu typesetting and Noori Nastaliq. I find it tough sometimes to soak into the talks we’ve been having because they are sandwiched between work, but these two really stood out.

4.

Once back, I’ve really had to hit the ground running with work. My days have been filled with a lot of bézier-wrangling. I had a bit of my cervical rib related arm pain resurface, and I’ve been feeling anxious that the two might be connected. Anyway, swimming helped, and I am hoping that it was a one time thing.

Week 14/2024

I’m writing this delayed edition of week notes from Bangalore, where I am visiting to teach a couple of workshops.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

I shipped the last order of the India Street Lettering zines placed from my shop. They are now officially sold out, save for the copies at The Bookshop Inc. in Delhi, and the ones that will soon become available at Champaca Bookstore in Bangalore. In more troubling news, I seem to have misplaced the set of three zines I had saved for myself. They should be somewhere in the house, but Amber and I just can’t find them. As a result, we spent a very stressful Saturday morning.

2.

All tickets for Pixel/Play are sold out. It has been a ride preparing for the workshop over a week in advance and carrying most of the material and books with me to Bangalore. I love being between cities, but the logistics are such a nightmare.

3.

I had the kick-off meeting for a new lettering commission, and the fourth development update meeting for a different typeface development project. On Monday, I found out that the third project I had pitched for last month has also come through after several rounds of scope changes and budget negotiations. It is going to be a busy summer.

4.

I arrived in Bangalore on Tuesday, and my luggage didn’t immediately arrive on the baggage claim carousel. The suitcase had an AirTag in it, which showed that it was very close to the carousel, even though we couldn’t see it. It took almost an hour to get the airport officials to turn the belt on again, and as it turned out, the bag was somewhere on the belt, invisible both at baggage claim and downstairs where the bags are loaded. Someone had switched the belt off before the last bag even made its way upstairs. I was so thankful for the AirTag without which I am not sure how we would have found the bag so quickly.

Week 13/2024

I am writing this week’s notes begrudgingly, but that is bound to happen sometimes. It is the cost of keeping up with a habit, I suppose. It has been a sluggish week. Even though I’ve been on my toes for most of it, it doesn’t feel like much has happened at all.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING

1.

Last Friday, we announced the workshop I’ll be running at the Underline Center on April 13. The workshop is called Pixel/Play and will focus on appreciating pixel type in our environments, making them using analog materials and discussing what makes well-designed letterforms work. It is a riff on the workshop I facilitated at UXNow in January. The format is now a bit shorter, and I believe there is better focus and prompts. I’ve added a couple of more books to the collection I shared in Delhi, as well as some photographs and typeface samples. I spent lots of time in the week either preparing for the workshop, or preparing material to advertise it on social media. Noopur and I were quite anxious about selling tickets for the workshop, but I am glad we’re already 90% full, with only a couple of seats left to claim.

2.

There were a couple of plans this week to work alongside friends, but they both fell through, so I’ve been feeling a bit low.

3.

I am back at a writing assignment that has been simmering on for months. I hate how a break in work has severed my connection with the subject matter somewhat. I am feeling, for the lack of a better word, uninspired. So I’ve been doing what I do in these situations, writing whatever comes in my head anyway, knowing that a full page is better than a blank one, and that ideas are bound to come together if they are sketched out first.

4.

I submitted by final assignment for Provoking Type on Tuesday morning, and attended the last session of the course today. I’m still reflecting on what the programme offered me and what I could give back in return, but one of the more practical things that I know now is that I am too old to commit to learning weekly in the middle of the night. My sleep and food schedule is more precious than I give it credit for, and I need that to work for my health.

5.

Our local pool opened for the summer on Tuesday, and Amber and I managed to sneak in a swim first thing in the morning.