First Advisor

Briar Levit

Date of Award

Spring 6-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) in Graphic Design and University Honors

Department

Art + Design

Language

English

Subjects

Graphic Design, Typography, Music, Devanagari, Lettering, Print Design

DOI

10.15760/honors.1713

Abstract

Local Indian scripts are slowly fading in favor of Latin and English due to the idolization and convenience of Western culture in post-colonial India. Unique Indic fonts and quality cultural design work are uncommon. To contribute to a small pool of design that deserves to be much larger, I decided to explore a niche topic--the emotional expression of Indian classical music, in particular the concept of time theory, and how Devanagari lettering can represent the emotions evoked by music.

I conducted surveys and several interviews to understand how typography expresses emotion in terms of technical concepts as well as cultural and psychological factors.

Additionally, I conducted a review of the ragas in each of the eight phases of the day to determine what emotion characterizes each phase. I then conducted visual research to develop a distinct visual direction for each phase of the day, aiming to represent the emotional qualities of the music while guiding the visual elements of my final project.

Using the visual framework I have created with my research, I created a book with eight chapters of lettering samples to represent each phase of the day.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43820

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