Chennai: Do you know that Tamil has just 350 font types in use while English has over a lakh? Multiple characters, which come to a total of 247 in Tamil acts as a constraint to experiment with new fonts. However, a group of three youngsters who made Kabali fan posters that went viral is now developing some creative font types.
It is a fact that posters, which form the primary basis of understanding, crave improvisation and uniformity in the Tamil cinema industry. Except for a few notable ones including Senthamil and Vanavil, new fonts seem to be absence in not just in cinema posters, but also in magazines.
Inspired by Hollywood movies, three youngsters – Aswin Chander, Ashok Kumar Pandian and S.Vasanth—have developed over 10 new fonts, which are capable of grabbing the attention of a viewer into poster typography.
Aswin Chander
What stops the typographers to go beyond the 350 types is the complexity in this South Indian language. “Unlike English, which has just 24 characters, Tamil has 247, making the procedure of font development a tough task. Calligraphy in Tamil is also tough,” explained Ashok Kumar Pandian, who recently created a poster for Valla Desam.
Associated with Aswin, he has created fan- made posters for Kabali, which went viral. The posters with superstar Rajini Kanth holding a cigar and a wine glass became so sensational that they occupied space on auto-rickshaws, T-shirts and eateries.
Posters of regional movies give prominence in the set order: Producers name, logo of production house, names of directors and actors – killing the beauty of the well-worked typography. However, these youngsters, stepping aside from merely adding animation effects to the existing font types, are trying to break the stereotype.
“Typography should be the main focus, not the logo of the production house nor the producer name. I am happy that the new directors and producers comprehend the logic and are willing to accept new ideas,” explained Aswin.
Aswin has bagged the best Tamil Typography award in 2014 from Behince, whereas Ashok won the best designer portfolio award in 2015. Their design explains the genre and subject of the movies, enabling the audience to connect at the first sight.
Describing the Hollywood style, Vasanth said: “Maintaining uniformity in font type is essential. It speaks of your professionalism and facilitate for a rich display. The style which is observed in Hollywood is yet to be marked in Kollywood.”
