Prof. Mukund Wasudeo Gokhale

Award

Professor Mukund Gokhale was awarded the medal of honour for a life time of contribution to the field of typography on the occasion of Typography Day 2012.

works

      These are some of his works:






















Biography

Merits & Awards:
Won First Prize for Symbol Design for Central Warehousing Corporation 1975.
Merit Entry Prize for Logo/Symbol design for India International Trade Fair 1973/74.
Won Third Prize for Painting, competition organised by Advertising
Club of Bombay 1972.
Consolation Prize for Poster on Industrial Safety, by National Safety
Council, Bombay 1973.
Won Second Prize for Sculpture in All India Dental Poster Competition (sculpture section) 1970.
Won First Prize for Poster Design in All India Dental Poster Competition 1970.
Awarded First Prize and Silver Medal for the Best Student of the year, Kareer Institute of Applied Art, Bombay, 1970.
Awarded First Prize for the outstanding performance in Photography, Govt. Polytechnic Nagpur, 1964.

One Man Show :
One Man Show of Paintings at Vidarbha Sahitya Sangh, Nagpur, 1972.

Participation :
State Art Exhibitions, Bombay Art Society Exhibitions.

Teaching Experience :
Faculty member at Kareer Institute of Applied Art, Bombay, 1970-1973.
Faculty member at Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art, Bombay, 1973-1978.
Director, Institute of Typographical Research, Pune, Jan. 1979 to Jan. 2000.

Special Training :
I had an opportunity to go for Industrial Training under the Govt. of India's quality improvement programme for the technical teachers, April 1975 to June 1975 at Gujarati Type Foundry Bombay. I got the hands on experience in Matrix fitting & type founding, and studied there the problems in designing type faces for Production of Devanagari and Roman type faces. Experimented exhaustively on
designs of Devanagari type faces for production at Experto Industrial Engravers Pvt. Ltd. Pune, during 1975-1978. Evolved and implemented quality standards for design for production in metal alloy types. Attended Educational National Seminar and Workshop for teachers of Art Institutions, Organised by Directorate of Art, Govt. of Maharashtra, Bombay, April-May 1973

Professional experience :
Since 1965 I have a varied experience in Advertising Design, Graphic Design, Typography, Exhibition Display, Packaging, Corporate Design, Type Designing of Indic Scripts.

Founder Member :
Institute of Typographical Research, Pune, 1979-2000. (Institute hsd R & D recognition from Dept of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, during that period).
Art Director, ITR Graphic Systems Pvt. Ltd. Pune, 1983-2000 (Retired voluntarily).

Founder Director :
Script Research Institute (SRI) (To promote further studies and research activities in Indian scripts and forgotten scripts of the past, revival of the tribal scripts and languages for better education and preservation of culture and heritage of India), Pune, 2000.

Work Published :
International Poster Annual 1969-70.
Cag Annual 1970.
Kareerite Annual 1967-68.

Research Papers :
Terminology for Devanagari Structure, (Prior to this, there was no standard terminology. This was designed for the purpose of Design education and applied science of Type Design activities. at (J.J.) 1976.
This paper was discussed at the conference of All India Type Founder's Federation, March 30th 1976, at Bombay and was very much acknowledged, Parameters of Devanagari type design, Published in the Annual of All India Master Printers Federation at Chandigarh 18th Conference & symposium on Design of Indian Type Scripts, 22nd April 1977.
'An Experiment on Devanagari Type Design System - Bharat Type Family' presented in National Workshop on Calligraphy & Typography April 19-20, 2007, organised by C-Dac, Pune.

Articles Published :
CALTIS (Calligraphy, Lettering and Typography of Indian Scripts) 1983, 1984, 1985 issues.

Books Published:
Mudran Prakash 1978-79 'Evolution of Script and Typography' Co-authored by Prof. DeepakGhare and Prof. Ranjan Joshi - 2000, Studio Muwago Publication.
'Devanagari Lipi : Chinhanchi Shastriya Olakh Aani Aarekhan Paribhasha' - October 2009, Nirali Prakashan, Pune.

Areas of Research and applications:
Design Parameters for Devanagari, Terminology for Indian Scripts.
Cartographic representation of Indian Scripts.
Writing systems of Indian regional Scripts.
Manuscript analysis, design and calligraphic studies.
Type designs for metal types.
Type designs for 2nd, 3rd, 4th generation photo-typesetters, optic,laser and digital systems.
Type designs for Mechanical and Electronic typewriters, fixed pitch and proportional pitch.
Type design applications for different processes, technologies and needs.
Designing of ergonomically efficient keyboard layouts for different scripts.
Frequency evaluation of phonetic and graphic characters.

Type faces designed :
Designed type faces for following scripts :
Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurumukhi, Bengali, Assamese,Oriya, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Simhalese, Burmese, Thai, Tibetan,Limbu, Tai-Ahom, Tai- Khampti, Manipuri, Modi Marathi, Lepcha, English.

Collaborations :
Collaborated and interacted with C-Dac for Standardisation of character sets for Indian regional scripts.
Collaborated and interactively participated in the promotion and development of setting all Indian and some foreign language scripts,with the following world class reputed companies and organizations.

Seminars :
Promoted and conducted CALTIS (Calligraphy, Lettering & Typography of Indian Scripts) Seminars and Exhibitions in 1983-84- 85 at Pune, Delhi and Calcutta. Published CALTIS 83, 84 and 85 volumes at the time of these seminars. Number of valued articles are published in it, written by eminent scholars and professionals. The objective of these seminars was to identify and promote
individuals and institutions for the research activities in India.

Akshar Rachana :
A monthly magazine published under the Editorship of Late Lipikar L. S. Wakankar from 1985 to 1997. I was the Art director and close collaborator. This magazine was dedicated to the development and promotion of printing and publishing with particular reference to Indian Scripts, its typography, history etc. It was promoted and sponsored by Institute of Typographical Research, Pune.

Visiting Faculty :
Assam University - Silchar, for the subject of Typography, and Type Design of Indian Scripts, since 2000.
Pune University, Sanskrit Dept. - Manuscriptology - Analytical Manuscript studies from calligraphic point of view.

Member :
Board of Studies in Applied Art, Academic council of Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwda University, Aurangabad.

Special Projects:
1. Executed two projects for the tribal scripts of Arunachal Pradesh, for Tai-Ahom and Tai-Khampti Scripts. Prior to this exercise, there were no printing types available for these scripts. Project constituted - Identifying character set, study of manuscript to understand the writing system and designal logic, Designing the system for casting Metal types, Type design for Metal types, Frequency evaluation of characters, Designing of Suitable type-case chart and fabrication of the type case, Casting of Metal types. This project was sponsored by the Teacher's Association - 'Tai Literature Society', who were faced with the problems of Romanisation of their script in the region by the Christian Missionaries. The tribles were not in favour of the Romanisation. They wanted to learn in their own mother tongue and script. The project was successfully executed in 1984- 85 and now the text books are printed with our types. In the year 2002, the process of computerisation was completed for desktop publishing system with proper ergonomic keyboard layout and good fonts.

2. Presently working on Maitai Script of Manipur and Lepcha Script of Sikkim State. In the course of time these projects will be completed.
3. A Unique Multifunctional Word processor 'Aksharayana' is under development. This will cover 32 European Language composing facility using a qwerty keyboard and Vedic Sanskrit, Indian classical music notation with phonetic keyboard. With a touch of a button you can switch between English and Devanagari. For this project I am working as consultant and Designer.

4. Since September 2009 working on Gondi script. At present there is no facility to print Gondi script, therefore the tribles of Gond origin are deprived of education in their own mother tounge. A basic book will be printed very shortly in Gondi script for the first time in the history of 'Gond Aadivasi'. This will facilitate the Gonds to learn in their mother tongue and Gond community will be brought to the mainstream of development

Contact

"5th Avenue" Apartments, 'B' Building, Flat No. 402,
Off Uttamchand Gandhi Marg, Near City Pride Cinema,
Kothrud, Pune 411029, India.
Phone : (020) 64001194 (020) 25458115
mwgokhale_scriptresearch@yahoo.com