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Sri Lanka’s graphic design sector has had record development within the last few years. From being commonly misconstrued as computer software knowledge and printing, SL graphic design is now becoming increasingly important to many industries as the creative and strategic solution provider for packaging, book design, logo design, branding, campaign design and many more growing demands.
At the 2013 SL Design Festival, the British Council UK delegates had their first introduction to this developing sector and were impressed by the quality of education and young talent in local graphic design. As a result of this, AOD’s graphic design department was invited to host a portrayal of this developing sector at the Alchemy Festival in London, as a pioneering SL representative meeting global standards in graphic design education.
Typographic projects that pioneer well-designed Sinhala and Tamil letters to their digital forms and a hybrid alphabet that prompts racial harmony were among the selected works premiered in London by AOD. This international recognition also marks the increasing standards of the local graphic design sector as it quickly gains recognition as a stable, financially rewarding and respected profession for young, educated designers.
The Alchemy Festival happens every year in London and celebrates south Asian culture and creates a public platform for design, art, music and other creative media from the region. The festival is curated through reviews and recommendations from a selected network of institutes. While the festival largely focused on India and Pakistan over the past years, this year Sri Lankan works of design were featured for the first time.
Providing a memorable premier for Sri Lankan graphic design in London, AOD graphic design department showcased an impressive series of typographic research and design. One of AOD’sfocus areas of research being typography within a cultural and sociologicalcontext, the featured work highlightedhow Sri Lankan graphic design studentsexploredhow to address social issuesthrough clever design of typography or fonts.
Alain Parizeau, program head of AOD’s graphic design department who hosted the Sri Lankan graphic design exhibition at Alchemy spoke on the significance of typographic design and the importance of platforms like Alchemy that allow design to cross borders and create an international dialog; “Within a graphic design context, effective typography can connect people. Appropriate type design creates a platform for language and communication…the Alchemy Festival is an ideal way to share positive developments happening in Sri Lanka within the sphere of design. I was excited to share the solutions to some of Colombo’s communication problems with an audience from London and hopefully beyond as well.”
One example of the work showcased is the AOD students’ attempt to design a complete set of Sinhala glyphs for digital use. With increasing computer literacy in Sri Lanka and more people seeking to see their native language on screen the choice of digital typefaces remains limited and often, poorly designed.
The AOD students’ project work attempted to address this and provide a series of consciously designed typefaces that magnify the meaning of their words and improve legibility; a project that would largely benefit designers as well as contemporary book publishers, newspapers, marketers, advertisers and web site designers who are looking to break the monotony.
Another example of the work featured is the hybrid alphabet that brings together Sinhala and Tamil language and creates an alphabet legible to both Sinhalese and Tamil nationals. This project attempted to provide a typographic solution to racial harmony by prompting people to focus on similarities opposed to differences.
Parizeau spoke further on the response received for the Sri Lankan typographic exhibition: “The response and feedback was positive. Visitors were impressed with work and applauded our initiative. Pathum Egodawatta’s hybrid Sinhala/Tamil glyphs were the crowd favourite and received the most interest. People were surprised to see such a positive and open-minded initiatives coming from Sri Lanka. It occurred to me that a lot of the people who I was meeting had very little knowledge of what is happening in Sri Lanka; in terms of art, design, music, literature and other creative projects happening in the country. So I like to think that our presence at Alchemy was a starting point to start a better understanding of Sri Lanka’s growing design sector.”
AOD’s presence at Alchemy is part of the beginnings of a growing interest on interesting, socially relevant design originating from Sri Lanka.
Parallel to Sri Lanka being invited to take part in Alchemy, 2014 also saw several other achievements in design like Sri Lanka’s first campus entry at Graduate Fashion Week UK, and the country’s first ISTD winner.
All this marks a wave of recognition for new Sri Lankan graphic design as a lucrative and rewarding career path for young, educated designers with the help of dynamic design educators like AOD.
