47 Days of Devanagari Type Marathon — An Instagram challenge
www.47daysofdevanagari.com
Mining the idea
Talking of the ever dynamic social media platforms, I am not a pro-Instagrammer, but I do use it occasionally to express myself and stay connected with the ongoing trends. The month of March, my feed had many stories of letterforms hashtagged as #36daysoftype. A few artworks instantly reminded me of my graduation project at IDC, IITB back in 2008, ‘Expressions through Devanagari Letterforms’ — which focused on similar kind of expressing letterforms as if they were actors on stage with voice, tonality, and form.
Running a challenge on social media is a great way to connect like-minded people across the world. Someone should do it for Devanagari script. Someone?? Why not us! An Instagram challenge could bind Devanagari script lovers across the world. The challenge could even expand to other diverse sets of scripts used in India. Anyways, me & Abneet Chauhan (co-initiator of #47DaysofDevanagariType) got really enthusiastic about taking this ahead.
To spread the idea, our primary way was to start a conversation. I picked up my phone to call few close friends. Soumya Tiwari and Sameer Jena were totally positive about it and got super excited. Preet committed to a 30-min deadline to finish a letter per day. Vinoth helped me understand the role of promoting event among design colleges and institutes. Abneet briefly drafted an email to people in his network and reached out to multiple friends asking if they would be interested in taking up the challenge. Conversations got branched out into more connections. People were ready to place posters, share our FB posts, and in just 7 days the event sort of went viral.
Making the challenge real
The day finally arrived and we were taken aback by the prolific artworks hashtagged as #47daysofdevanagaritype. 100 artworks in no time — it was a moment of solace. Our mailbox activity suddenly shot up with emails regarding participation, suggestions, applauding the initiative etc. The surprise came in the form of the new participants who had presented an amalgamation of different subjects. Floral designer from Chicago — Alka Srivastava expressed a letterform belonging to her world of bonsai. Lokesh Pangty from Uttrakhand created an ancient style blueprint of the letterform, as an architectural drawing. Erin McLaughlin, a typeface designer in Wichita, used leaves and flowers to express the beauty of letterform through nature. 47days is an open platform — some artists created their own unique style and improvised it throughout the challenge while some tapped different mediums to paint new form each day. Concept Art, Video Calligraphy, Art Abstraction, Light & Shadow, Needle & Thread, Paper Folding, Mural — the list seems endless today for what all was explored in these 47 Days.
The challenge saw multiple crests and troughs. Fifth ‘letter of the day’ — ‘ङ’ created ripples around its pronunciation and usage. ‘घ’ also had a tough day as it is very similar to ‘ध’ in form. Almost every day brought in a new challenge and a new learning.
During the event, we interacted with participants who were pushing themselves hard to match the pace as well as improve work quality. The buzz became huge when the daily-doers started following each other. The platform helped to create a network of people with similar interests and domain. One’s style and finesse influenced others to improve.
..and Creating an Impact
47 Days initially seemed to be a long run to cover for us as well as participants, but there is always a reason why you may choose a long path. The challenge resonated with many enthusiasts. It brought together many people like me & Abneet who were lovers of this beautiful script from childhood days. The varnamala (letters) was one more time written after decades. The artworks, messages, and ideas reflected that we still love to write, speak and talk in languages that originated out of Devanagari — one of the most scientifically evolved scripts of the present time.
The journey has been amazing. The 47 days challenge ended on May 31st. With the proud feeling of being able to connect the Devanagari script-lovers across the world, we have now started sharing our thoughts with more people and are combining best artwork on this platform in a book that could become a true souvenir of India & its type-culture with such varied expressions.
Thanks to all who participated, supported and encouraged us.
www.47daysofdevanagari.com
www.facebook.com/47daysofdevanagaritype
www.instagram.com/47daysofdevanagaritype
