![]() It is actually Satyajit Ray who was a pioneering force behind the new wave in Indian commercial art form. He added aesthetic touch and innovative thoughts to it. He revolutionized the art of typography and book jacket designs. His work experience as a graphic designer left him a more creative person. Typography by Satyajit Ray Interest for typography within Ray did not actually initiate with metallic letters used for printing but with calligraphy done with thick brush. The lavishness of Ray's calligraphic typography attracted the attention of lot of people in 1943. That very year he started to work as a cover designer for books published by Signet Press. He designed advertisement logo for new publications and modern Bengali poems. He also designed advertisements for new publications to fill the very small spaces he got in the yellowish pages of the well-liked periodicals printed in newsprint. No metallic types satisfied him, so he used his own skills and creativity to draw the cover to go with the mood of the poem. For the covers he found no metallic type suitable enough to go with the moods of the poems. Satyajit Ray created numerous new Bengali typefaces which have refreshingly original yet perfectly legible form. The typefaces designed by Ray may be classified into two different streams: architectural (replicable) and calligraphic (non-replicable). ![]() Ray created only four Roman fonts (Ray Bizarre, Ray Roman, Daphnis and Holiday Script), while he created many new fonts in Bengali. Daphnis is actually partly architectural. The upper parts of the letters are architectural, while the lower parts are not. Ray Bizarre too is partly architectural for the same reason. Holiday Script looks like an accidental creation in a game played among friends during a picnic. Ray is the first and possibly the only designer artist of typefaces in Bengal who inspired an entire community to love and appreciate the beauty of the letters and alphabets of their mother tongue. One of the reasons for the Bengali's love of reading is their ability to appreciate the beauty the Ray typography Illustrations by Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray worked as an illustrator and had his own style of designs which we have come to love and appreciate. He studied art for two years and five months at Viswa Bharati University in Shantiniketan. There he mastered the art of handling the painting brush with extreme dexterity. He learned the detailed use of a brush and also how to use brush strokes in varied thickness for one particular composition. There were times when his brushing became harsh and coarse, full of fidgety energetic straight lines, and sometimes the lines had a lyrical flow. He illustrated his book covers, film posters, children's books, billboards, publicity material and even the title cards Book Jackets by Satyajit Ray ![]() His typical style made it possible for him to create masterpiece for Signet Press (a publishing house that Ray designed the cover of the abridged Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhyay novel Pather Panchali, that went on to become the inspiration for his magnum opus). Advertisements by Satyajit Ray After finishing his art education in Shantiniketan for over two years he returned to Kolkata and joined an ad company named D.J. Keymer where he worked as a junior graphic designer. He worked there for 13 years before plunging into filmmaking. Costumes by Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray always maintained a red cloth bound copy (Kheror Khata), where he sketched his editing, cinematography, art direction and designs. He designed posters, slides, titles, booklets, publicity materials and everything that post production required. His talent and ingenuity found expression in meticulously designed dresses and costumes for his characters. One of the most important costumes that he designed was for his film named Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne (The Adventures of Goopi and Bagha) and Hirak Rajar Deshe (The Kingdom of Diamonds). In his Goopi Bagha series he designed the costumes in great details for the character of Goopiy, Bagha, King of Shundi, and the ministers of King of Diamonds, the Chief Minister, the magician, the guards and the sycophant. He also designed the magical slippers that Goopi and Bagha used in the film. (Last Updated on : 08-09-2014) |
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