Conference Presented

As we start off with 2021 new chapters have also evolved in Zen's life, these chapters are about letterpress printing with fun and errors (which should be avoided while printing). This series of knowing the oldest technique of communication is as fascinating as one can hold the metal type in hand and can feel the letters. Anyone can be part of this experience to understand how important it is to recognise what we have taken from granted. As an aspiring type designer, typographer and educator my passion lie in sharing what I know and what more I can learn so here we go!! let print and learn. Location: Srishti Manipal Institute of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka

Zenab Bastawala at CreativeMornings Bangalore, September 2018. Free events like this one are hosted every month in dozens of cities. Discover hundreds of talks from the world's creative community at https://creativemornings.com/talks Don't miss a video. Subscribe! https://bit.ly/1jeJwut Follow CreativeMornings: https://twitter.com/creativemorning https://facebook.com/creativemornings

This talk converges on the visual aspects of hand typeset specimens from famous Indian foundries which addresses a crucial period in the history of colonial India where a new printing and font casting technology arrives and in a few decades captures both the market and imagination of the Indian mass printing. The presentation will explore and elucidate the India foundry type specimens prints and their ideological and sociological significance as India’s unifying visual medium of communication for distribution of metal fonts and awareness for distinct Latin and Non-Latin series respectively.

In 2017, I visited The British, Dutch and Armenian cemeteries known as 'Alampanah' and 'Gulam Falia' respectively. The colonials impress the natives, by constructing enormous ornamental mausoleums instead of tombstones which are around 300 to 400 approximately at the respective cemeteries. The earliest grave is dated circa 1649. Each grave followed by a discussion of the origins of the cemetery, the chronology of the tombs and the identity and status of the dead. Both (British),(Dutch and Armenian) cemeteries are located within a short distance near Katargam Gate, Katargam, Surat, Gujarat, India. These graves are beautifully carved in English, Dutch, and Armenian languages using the Latin and Armenian scripts. The calligraphy and typography communicate immensely about the monumental inscriptions which lookalike manuscript using Rustic capitals, Uncials, Half-uncials, Chancery hand, Bastarda and Cursive Italian styles along with ornamental patterns of flower and animals; motifs of angles and demon. They are maintained under the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India). Despite this, the majority of these monuments are showing signs of severe deteriora­tion; fallen into decay, their marble slabs have been crumbled, and many have been removed and stolen. Appreciating the historical value of the carvings, I decided to take action to conserve them before the city loses its historical memorials, e.g. by maintaining the physical stones and document the inscriptions, catalogue their text/location, etc. Preserving all of them is a time-consuming process. Firstly, I will be cleaning the slab carefully with water; then rubbing or estampaging on a piece of paper. The estampage paper will be then preserved and scan in the form of a document or photograph to built digitalised archived for a broader audience to use the archive online and increase the utility of the collection. I will also be creating a library of inscribed letterforms as typefaces or font families.

The sign walk was part of the Typography workshop I conducted at South Gujarat University, Surat in 2016. This workshop was part of the studio project for UG Visual Communicaion students. The concept was to understand the hand letters and shop signs and create a lettering piece that was related to their chosen context.

In 2017, I was invited by TUMO to facilitate a 'Cultural Exchange' workshop with Armenian Kids. These snap shorts were taken during the Sign walk at Yerevan and Gyumri on the streets which combines a beautiful memeory of the shops signs, lettering, carved letters of Armenian script.

The video presents studio tour at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art Design and Technology, this an ongoing research on chasing for type foundries and letterpress printing presses in Bangalore, India. From many fortunate to sustain was Late 1800? Sri Ranganatha Type Foundry in Bangalore, Karnataka, India later transfer to Sri Bhubneshwari Type Foundry 1998. The foundry held a collection of Bronze and copper Kannada matrices from Monotype and other local casting companies which is now maintained at Srishti Manipal University letterpress lab. The lab also has Gobble Jobbler press from late 1800 with a collection on 500 metal type. During this session, we will dive into the fascinating world of Bronze and Copper matrices. Font Casting machine, Gobbler Jobber press and you’ll learn about the collection of Kannada Roman, Brunda series, Times Roman, Baskerville Roman, Gill Sans, Majestic, Kohinoor, Old style Roman, Typewriter, Garamond, College Roman. (Monotype).

The video presents studio tour at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art Design and Technology, this an ongoing research on chasing for type foundries and letterpress printing presses in Bangalore, India. From many fortunate to sustain was Late 1800? Sri Ranganatha Type Foundry in Bangalore, Karnataka, India later transfer to Sri Bhubneshwari Type Foundry 1998. The foundry held a collection of Bronze and copper Kannada matrices from Monotype and other local casting companies which is now maintained at Srishti Manipal University letterpress lab. The lab also has Gobble Jobbler press from late 1800 with a collection on 500 metal type. During this session, we will dive into the fascinating world of Bronze and Copper matrices. Font Casting machine, Gobbler Jobber press and you’ll learn about the collection of Kannada Roman, Brunda series, Times Roman, Baskerville Roman, Gill Sans, Majestic, Kohinoor, Old style Roman, Typewriter, Garamond, College Roman. (Monotype).