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ABOUT

Neelakash Kshetrimayum

Indian graduate from the type design program at the University of Reading in 2010. He designed Frijky at Reading, which he introduces as follows: A progressive family of Latin and Bengali typefaces. Based on the calligraphic stroke movement, Frijky is fluid yet sturdy. Intended for publications, Frijky gives news extra bite with its aggressive edge. Additional scans: i, ii, iii. Frijky was used for the logo of the ATypI 2011 meeting in Reykjavik. Neelakash has designed two typefaces---Pakhangba and Sanamahi---for Meetei Mayek, the native script of Manipur.

In 2011, Neelakash co-founded Mayek Projects with Anand Naorem, which offers design solutions for type, news and branding. Speaker at ATypI 2011 in Reykjavik on the revival of Meeti Mayek.

He writes: In the beginning of the 18th century, as a result of political and cultural changes, the Bengali script replaced Meetei Mayek---the indigenous script of Manipur (a north-eastern state of India bordering Myanmar). Since then, the people of Manipur have been using the Bengali script for writing Meeteilon, the main spoken language of Manipur. This led to the introduction of new sounds in the Meeteilon from the Bengali script. Hence, during this period some new and modified letterforms were added for these sounds in Meetei Mayek. However after a number of conferences, the scholars have finally concluded that Meetei Mayek consists of 27 letteforms with their supplements. After almost 250 years, in 2005-06, the Government of Manipur officially approved the Meetei Mayek and included in the academic curriculum of Manipur Education. The new generation is learning Meetei Mayek instead of Bengali script to read and write Meeteilon. As the new generation is learning Meetei Mayek and it is slowly replacing the Bengali script, new typefaces will also be required for various forms of communication [...]. At present there are only a few typefaces, of questionable quality. Very limited research has been done on Meetei Mayek from the typographic point of view. Besides, there is a need to develop a system or guideline for designing Meetei Mayek typefaces. [...] This presentation discusses the typographic evolution of Meetei Mayek with examples from inscription, manuscript, letterpress, sign-paintings and digital typefaces. It reflects on the existence of multi-script communication in Manipur and its influence on Meetei Mayek.

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INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Bengali fonts ⦿ Indic language fonts ⦿ Letterpress ⦿