Unit One - Braille Devanagari - Output

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Submitted in partial fulfilment of the require– ments for the unit one — design literacy Viraj Deo ma graphic branding and identity 21 March 2011

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Secondary Research

secondary mind mapping excercise

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The journey to the concept for final outcome.

I kept a different approach to mind mapping than the previous and looked into to more specific terms this time, relational to the final concept. Through this process I realised the absolute importance, power and result of mind mapping.

Braille research and explorations

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braille explorations

The truth of a thing is the feel of it, not the think of it. stanley kubrick

“To touch something is to situate oneself in relation to it.” ways of seeing

by John Berger

The medium is the message. marshall mcluhan

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about braille

braille is a medium, a code It is a way of giving and receiv-

the blank pages seem so empty yet so eloquent

ing information. You have to feel to get information. Blind people use it because they can't get any information by using their eyes. Since 1854 it has been their alphabet, but I think it can be also be an alphabet for any other person. Life is very tough life a blind person, but the amount of technological advancements that have happened; some of them radical advancement for eg. digital device computers and mobile phones which can read and decode braille language, audio books, etc. I think it will be a sensational thing to see how this beautiful set of code evolve in the future.

The beauty of this language is its versatility. One who is aware of this language can read a braille book in complete dark! Reading without light surely seems to be a wonderful thought. I think that Braille texts could be about for example more heavy and provocative subjects than other texts. With Braille, nobody immediately sees what the text is about, so the moment you start touching the bumps, you'll be surprised. Tn that way, we also wouldn't judge the text before reading it completely Braille gives you the possibility to learn how to read all over again. All aspects of reading, feeling and inter-

to get information through our fingertips Our fingertips would become so much more valuable to us. I find braille books with little bumps a complete mystery.

Research suggests that blind people have better recalling ability of a text set in they've read in the past and a sighted person.

preting are introduced to you in a new way.

braille cell dimensions

2.5 mm

1.4–1.5 mm

6–6.4 mm

2.3 mm 1.4–1.5 mm

10.4–12.7 mm

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6–6.4 mm

types of braille system

Braille a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

w

x

y

z

l

m

n

o

l

m

n

o

l

m

n

o

Swell braille a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

w

x

y

z

Sim braille a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

w

x

y

z

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braille vs. moon

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braille vs. latin alphabets

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Typeface din next rounded lt pro

braille vs. latin alphabets

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braille vs. latin alphabets

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braille vs. latin alphabets

duality d(y)oþ'alite noun (pl. -ties) an instance of opposition or contrast between two concepts or two aspects of something; a dualism circle — context and research for output

braille dots in triangle and square

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braille explorations

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braille letters explorations

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braille letters explorations

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braille letters explorations

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braille letters explorations

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braille letters explorations

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braille letters explorations

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braille letters explorations

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braille letters explorations

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braille pattern explorations

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braille pattern explorations

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braille pattern explorations

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Study of Brãhmi and Devanagari scripts brãhmi

ckfã The Brahmi script is one of the most important writing systems in the world by virtue of its time depth and influence. It represents the earliest postIndus corpus of texts, and some of the earliest historical inscriptions found in India.

Most importantly, it is the ancestor to hundreds of scripts found in South, Southeast, and East Asia.

Brahmi is a “syllabic alphabet”, meaning that each sign can be either a simple consonant or a syllable with the consonant and the inherent vowel /a/. Other syllabic alphabets outside of South Asia include Old Persian and Meroïtic. However, unlike these two system, Brahmi (and all subsequent Brahmiderived scripts even Devanagari) indicates the same consonant with a differ-ent vowel by drawing extra strokes, called mãtrãs, attac-hed to the character. Ligatures were used to indicate consonant clusters.

The Brahmi script was the ancestor of all South Asian Writing Systems. In addition, many East and Southeast Asian scripts, such as Burmese, Thai, Tibetan, and even Japanese to a very small extent (vowel order), were also ultimately derived from the Brahmi script. Thus the Brahmi script was the Indian equivalent of the Greek script that gave arise to a host of different systems.

The following chart is the basic Brahmi script. There are many variations to the basic letter form, but I have simplified it here so that the most canonical shape is presented.

When I observed these letters closely I found that theres a remarkable similarity between the Brahmi letters and the Moon system. For eg. the letter 'tha' here is exactly the same as letter 'o', letter 'ai' or 'ga' similar to 'a', 'dha' and the letter 'd', 'ja' to the letter 'j' in Moon.

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devanagari

nsoukxjh Even though a descendent of the Brahmi script, Devanagari has evolved into a highly cursive script. Many languages in India, such as Hindi, Sanskrit, use Devanagari and many more languages throughout India use local variants of this script. Hindu scriptures are

The following is the basic Devanagari alphabet:

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written in Devanagari, a fact illustrated by the etymology of the name. "Devanagari" is a compound word with two roots: DevĂŁ means "deity", and nagari means "city".

Together it implies a script that is both religious as well as urbane or sophisticated.

An ancient Devanagari manuscript at a museum in Punjab.

Reference sheet linotype devanagari bold

anatomy of devanagari typefaces

The anatomy of a letter can perhaps be defined as a system which depicts the structural makeup of a letter; describing certain key parts within the letter for a given typeface. These morphological articulations of the characters

within the font form the first level of description within the typographic ontology of a script. The Latin script, due to its long and elaborate tradition in printing; has a fairly standardized vocabulary to describe its letterforms. Unlike western

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typographic systems, theory and literature on the anatomy of Devanagari letters is sparse although there are a few experts who have tried to articulate the various features of Devanagari letters.

Specimen by Satya Rajpurohit indian type foundry

some specimens i collected to see the expressiveness of devanagari

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Calligraphy by Achyut Palav

Development of final output Can I re-look at existing the ‘Braille Devanagari system’; adhering to the aesthetics and structure of Devanagari script (Bharati braille)?

And can it be made more coherent to read for a visually impaired person who understands the braille Devanagari system?

This is area of study has neither been proposed or approached in the past and is worth looking into. What I learned that the present Unicode standards for braille Devanagari are based on the same construct of the 2 column by 3 coulmn grid of braille system and found this confining, the Devanagari letters are made-up of elegant

Present braille devanagari system

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conjuncts and terminals. I saw this as a possible opportunity of exploring some basic characters; and not the complete character set which would have been a massive scope of work. This was something I had never dealt in the past.

It came out as a challenge to understanding, knowledge and aesthetics regarding Latin and Devanagari typography.

the braille grid

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the braille grid

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the braille grid

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the braille grid

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output

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output

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output

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output

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output

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output

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output

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output

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output explorations

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output explorations

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output explorations

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output explorations

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output explorations

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output explorations

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output explorations

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output explorations

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bibliography

books Photos of the Gods - The Printed Image and Political Struggle of India

by Christopher Pinney oxford university press Anatomy of Devanagari Typefaces Girish Dalvi iit-bombay Type - The Secret History of Letters

by Simon Loxley

Touch: Graphic Design with tactile appeal

by Ferdinand Lewis and Rita Street

Details of Bharati Braille

The Black book of colors

by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faria

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_ is_the_message_(phrase)

This is Braille 411 roy 741.6 kla Tactile

web references Works of Bridget Louise Riley books from lcc library The Mind Map Book

by Tony Buzan

The Origins of abc

Ways of Seeing

by John Berger

History of Letterform Design in India

Writing without letters Mont Follick series, Volume IV Origins of the Alphabets

by Joseph Naveh

http://ilovetypography.com/2010/08/07/ where-does-the-alphabet-come-from/

http://www.designinindia.net/designthoughts/writings/history/ india-history-type-design1.html

Brahmi Script from Ancient Scripts http://www.ancientscripts.com/brahmi. html

Indic language fonts Letters

by James Hutchinson

The medium is the message (phrase)

Enabling the Disabled http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/enable.html

Library Services for Visually imapired people Royal National Institute of Blind People (rnib) See it Right 302.23 rni

An Approach to Type Design and Text Composition in Indian Scripts

by Pijush K. Ghosh dept. of computer science stanford university

http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/disabilities/ bh_brl_discuss.php

http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~luc/indic.html

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Transcribing Braille Documents in Foreign Languages National Braille Association (NBA)

Graphic design for blind users: an industrial case study

by Estelle Costes & Jean François

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Viraj Deo ma graphic branding and identity 21 March 2011

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