Rong Ring Font
Category: Font Design, Research, Print design, Branding
Year: 2018
Guide: Shubham Roy & Milly Singh
Awards: Most professional Project Award- Pearl Academy ; Certificate of Appreciation - Government of Sikkim, India.
Objective:
The project will focus on making effective display fonts to help in preserving the endangered script. This will also help to improve means of communication amongst the Lepcha community.
To watch the video Click here
Recognition: endangeredalphabets.com, The Hindu, Education Times.
Secondary Research:
During my secondary research in languages, I came across Lepcha which had been marked as an endangered language by UNESCO (children no longer learn the language as a mother tongue in the home) (Unesco.org, n.d.) as well as severely endangered (Few Thousands Speak the language) by the Endangered Languages Project (Endangeredlanguages.com, n.d.). The Language is Spoken in Sikkim, Kalimpong - Darjeeling district in West Bengal India, Ilam district in Nepal, and in a few villages of Samtsi district in south-western Bhutan.
Primary Research:
I travelled to Sikkim and Kalimpong to do my Primary research. I divided my research into two parts:
- In-depth interviews with individuals who have been working in this field and the older generation of the same community
From the interviews I gained insight into the Life of the Lepcha people but, along with this I realised a lot of my Secondary research was questioned. I could see a difference in the Lepcha community living in Kalimpong and the Lepcha community living in Sikkim on the basis of the information I collected on topics like history, culture, thought process, usage of existing font etc.
- Dip-stick Survey of the mindset of younger generation of the Lepcha community.
I did my Dip-stick in the Kalimpong Night School- West Bengal and The Passingdang Government school, Dzongu- Sikkim. I interacted with 75 Lepcha kids between the age of 9 to 18. They were living in Lepcha dominated areas and were studying Lepcha as a subject. Out of the 75 students, 65 of them found it difficult to speak and write in Lepcha and, all 75 preferred to use English or Nepali on an everyday basis instead of Lepcha. This was because they converse with their family, friends and even with people in the Market in English or Nepali.
Process and Iterations:
I then started iterating keeping the Lepcha community in mind. I drew inspiration from the Mountains, their way of life, form of writing, everyday products, bamboo, patterns from their traditional clothes, etc. I used different kinds of graphs, pens and combinations to come up with many options.
After a lot of Iterations I shortlisted two designs. One was inspired by the mountains and was made using a square graph sheet. It was geometrical in nature, The problem I faced with this one was that the local people of Sikkim could not relate to it because, they have never seen their script written in a way away from Calligraphic. This is the one of the main reason I went ahead with the second design.
The Inspiration for this Font came from fonts that have been classified as modern like Didot and Bodoni. The reason I chose this style was because it is a mix between old style types and contemporary style.
I wanted this because, the Lepcha fonts that have been developed before have only used old school/ caligpaphical style. This modern approach will give the script a new look and not be so different to the people that are used to seeing the script written in a particular style.
To launch the Script in Sikkim I have created a Brand identity for a Homestay (Acchulay), which is located in the village Passingdang in Dzongu District. The inspiration for the logo has been taken from the Mountain Kanchendzonga which is considered holy among the Lepcha community. The colours for the Logo and the Signage have been picked from the nature as it defines the Lepcha people more than anything. Like in the mockups I have combined the new Font I created - Rong Ring with the Latin Font Bodoni.
This revolutionary Roman style also highlights the unique and royal beauty of the Lepcha people as they call themselves the children of God. It can be used to give an elegant feel to any poster, publication, signage etc.
In the second part of the project, I concentrated on creating examples of where the font can be used to increase the economic value of the script.
When I was Creating these packagings, I kept in mind to combine Lepcha and English so that the people who are buying these products can understand what’s written and at the same time appreciate the Beauty of the Local Language.
One of the packagings I created was for Rhododendron wine, as it is very common for tourists to buy the wine and take it back home. The second packaging that I created was for the Traditional cloth of the Lepcha People. This is often bought by the Locals and also by people who visit Sikkim for its unique Pattern.
