Rathna Ramanathan is Head of Central Saint Martins and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of the Arts. Previously she was Dean of Academic Strategy at Central Saint Martins, and before that Dean of School of Communication at the Royal College of Art.

Originally from Chennai, India, she works in communication design, particularly within a South Asian context. Her practice is fuelled by a love for, and lifelong interest in typography and languages, and a belief that communication is a fundamental human right.

As a graphic designer and typographer, she is best known for her work with Tara Books, an independent collective of writers, designers and book designers who favour a non-hierarchical mode of functioning informed by feminism and other movements for social justice. With Tara Books, she has co-authored and published multiple books, many of which have won international design awards. The most prominent, In the Land of Punctuation, has been translated into multiple languages, featured in multiple exhibitions, and inspired a performance in South Korea. She leads the book design and bilingual typesetting on the Murty Classical Library of India, a 100-year, critical, postcolonial, and premodern literary publishing project.
Her key research areas are intercultural graphic communication and alternative publishing practices in the Global South.

Rukmini Banerji is the Chief Executive Officer of Pratham Education Foundation.

Rukmini Banerji was trained as an economist at St. Stephen’s College (Delhi) and the Delhi School of Economics. She was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University (1981-83) and completed her PhD at the University of Chicago in 1991. Rukmini returned to India in 1996 and joined Pratham. Over the years, she has worked extensively in Pratham’s education programs in rural and urban areas. Along with her teams, she has played a major role in designing and supporting large scale partnerships with state governments in India, for improving children’s learning outcomes. Rukmini led Pratham’s research and assessment efforts including the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) exercise from 2005 to 2014. Since 2015, she has been the CEO of Pratham.

In 2008, Rukmini received the Maulana Abul Kalam Shiksha Puraskar by the Government of Bihar, India. She was the first recipient of this award. In 2021, Rukmini was awarded the Yidan Prize for Education Development.

Originally from Bihar, she is now based between New Delhi and Pune. Rukmini writes frequently on education in both Hindi and English dailies in India and enjoys writing books and stories for children

Dr. Santosh Kshirsagar is a Design Educator and Calligrapher from Mumbai, India. With more than 2 decades of teaching experience , he is the current Dean at Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art. In 2019, he completed his PhD on Handwritting Acquisition in Devanagari script from IDC, IIT Bombay.

He teaches Calligraphy (especially in Devanagari script), Typography and Visual Communication Design. He has conducted several workshops in India and abroad and has given illustrated talks on Indian Calligraphy in Germany, Belgium, London and Japan. His Calligraphic works have been exhibited in Japan with Prof. Mori Kooun, Australia and USA. He has presented his research papers at ICTVC (Cyprus), ATYPAI (Dublin, Ireland), International Graphonomics Society Conference (Japan). He has also designed Typefaces for Microsoft (Window XP) in Gujrati & Oriya scripts.

He is an academic consultant to government organisations and private institutions in India. He is on the advisory board of Typography Day from 2009. He is one of the Co-Founder of Aksharaya, a non-profit organisation dedicated to creating awareness about Indian scripts.

Academic background:
M.Des (Visual Communication) Industrial Design Centre (IDC), IIT, Bombay, 1992.
BFA (Applied Arts), Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Vadodara,1990.

Fields of expertise:
- Visual Design,
- Typography,
- Publication Design,
- Magazine Design
- Information Graphics

Work Experience:
- June 2000 till date: Faculty Member at The Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay, Powai, Bombay.
- 2 years with Jasubhai Digital Media. Group Art Director of magazines including CHIP, Digit, CHIP specials, CHIP Hindi, Computer Reseller News, Network Computing, Computer Gaming World etc.
- 1 year with Intelligent Investor, India's first personal finance magazine, from the publishers of Outlook
- 1 year and six months with The Indian Express (Madurai) group. Art Director for Gentleman and Biznet.
- 3 years with The Independent and The Metropolis on Saturday and Bombay Times, a part of The Times of India group as Graphic Designer. Also contributed for various publications from Times Group including Femina, Illustrated Weekly, Sunday Times etc.
- Graphic artist with Doordarshan, Trivandrum.
- Freelance cartoonist and illustrator for various magazines in Kerala.
Subjects taught : Typography, Information Graphics, Calligraphy, Representational Techniques, Visual Design, Media Technology, Anatomy and Life Drawing, Publication Design, Computer Aided Design etc

Achyut Palav is one of the foremost names in Indian calligraphy today. With his unique approach and faith in the aesthetic appeal of the art, he has made significant contribution in reviving the glory of Indian calligraphy. His efforts & initiatives have made it possible for the Devnagari Script to gain popularity on national & international platform. Through his various exhibitions and workshops in India and abroad, he has demonstrated calligraphy in Devnagari, English & other Indian languages.

He believes that each letter & symbol is a design in itself & has the potential of a becoming a piece of art. Calligraphy according to him is like any other art form is all about perception. We can alter our thinking dimensions& broaden our imagination in order to change your perception. Achyut Palav has always considered calligraphy to be the art of the common man & strives to create awareness in the masses about the heritage & modern-day application of Indian Calligraphy.

He has successfully experimented in fusing calligraphy with performing arts while working with noted musicians, dancers & theatre artists. With his various experiments with texture, tools, media & various scripts, he has proven that calligraphy has a vast potential for commercial application.

Achyut Palav has many publications, exhibitions and awards to his name befitting the tremendous work he has done. His paintings adorn the walls of prominent museums, establishments & corporate offices. He has founded the ‘Achyut Palav School of Calligraphy’ & established ‘Callifest’ –A Festival of Indian Scripts. His current work primarily is to promote calligraphy in all spheres of life and ensure that it reaches newer heights of glory.

Title: 'Calligraphy for Children'

Dr. Anju Kauwr Chazot and Pascal Chazot are founders and trustees of Mahatma Gandhi International School (MGIS), in Ahmedabad. The school was founded in 1998, is an award winning Public-Private Partnership model between the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Municipal School Board and educationalists, Dr. and Anju Kawr Chazot.

The school integrates a Center for Action Research in Education and a Center for Teacher Training. In addition to in-house training, MGIS founders and senior faculty have mentored schools of various boards to implement the MGIS trademark ‘Generated Resource Learning TM ’ pedagogy. Research done by MGIS faculty includes over 500 articles on education, linguistics and parenting in publications across Europe, Canada and Asia; text-books for the Gujarat Government etc.

MGIS is student-centric and functions on democratic principles of self-governance. It has created a space for experiential learning through projects with real life links. It was the first international school in Gujarat, the first school in the state to use Apple technology and the first school in India to offer skill development courses affiliated to Edexcel BTEC. MGIS has a strong international and national education exchange program with France, Australia, South Korea, USA and Ladakh (India).

Rosemary Sassoon (born 1931 and currently residing in Busselton, Western Australia) is an expert in handwriting, particularly that of children. She designed the Sassoon series of typefaces, produced in collaboration with Adrian Williams, which are intended to be particularly legible for children and learners.

She was awarded the degree of Ph D from the department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading for her research into the effects of models and teaching methods on the way children learn to join up their handwriting. The project that resulted in the Sassoon family of typefaces came about when she discovered that no research had been undertaken to find out from children themselves what kind of letters they found easiest to read. Young children were found to be amazingly articulate. Their judgements and comments were instrumental in the design of Sassoon Primary. This work is documented in Computers and Typography.
Since 1985, in partnership with Adrian Williams a whole range of font products for reading and handwriting education in schools has been developed until 2016.

Aditi Babel is a graphic designer, visual artist and book design artist. Her work has been exhibited widely both in India and abroad at some of the leading design forums. She is regularly invited to lecture and conduct design workshops in universities, design festivals and tradeshows. Aditi lives and works in Udaipur.

Established in 2013, Aditi Babel Design Studio is a graphic design and craft studio, focused on the vision of creating handcrafted stories, products and services. The studio values fine craftsmanship, design process, aesthetic sensibility and an eye for detail. They follow a carefully selected design process of research – concept development- evolution of design to final execution of the idea.

They specialize in different forms of binding techniques that can be applied to projects such as book and brochure design, packaging, invitation and stationery design. ABDS, under the label ‘Babel Books’ is an avant-garde in book craft, creating a wide range in handcrafted stationery with innovative bindings, limited edition artist books and paper sculptures. The idea of a ‘book’, looked at as ‘story’ and an ‘object’, is explored through multiple mediums, techniques and materials.

Title: 'Designing with Paper Play'

The following are the accepted papers for presentation during the online conference:
18th and 19th November 2022,
Hosted by IDC School of Design (IDC), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay)

Designing a Novel Tai Chi Practice Experience by Integrating New Digital Typefaces Design and AR Technology
Hung Keung, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong .........

 

Alphabets as Visuals
Maithili Doshi Aphale, Art Director and Designer, Studio Em & En , India .........

 

Bagulbua— A Monstrous Approach to the Devanagari Script
Vaijayanti Ajinkya, Lecturer, Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art, India .........

 

Akshar-Chittra: can type made from a craft transform the process of learning to read and write?
Ishan Khosla, Trustee and Founder, The Typecraft Initiative / UPES Dehradun, India .........

 

Visual Cryptography in Typography
Anusheel Gurjar, Graphic Designer, TSK Design, India .........

 

Type that Connects us With Our Roots
Kanaka Ananth, Director, Maniams Marketing Services Private Limited, India .........

 

Discussing the Role of Typography in Evolution of Children’s Educational Books and its Impact on Learning
Jui Shekhar Karhadkar, Faculty of Visual Communication Design, Srishti Manipal Institute, Bangalore, India .........

Approaching an understanding of deep emotional connections with typefaces through a font-based board game by applying thinking and reasoning while remembering feelings with typefaces
Sharmila Malladi and Prof. Abhrojit Boral, Unitedworld Institute of Design, India .........

 

Savitribai Phule’s life through Devanagari letters
Lekha Rajan Tilave, Rachana Sansad College of Applied Arts & Crafts, India .........

   

Mohalla: A Multilingual Typeface Inspired from Hand painted street Typography
Rana Shinde, School of planning and Architecture, Bhopal, India .........