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UAL Research Online

MCLI (Murty Classical Library of India) Archive (Issues 1 through 4). A series of archival captures that document the process of designing the interiors of the Murty Classical Library of India for Harvard University Press.

Ramanathan, Rathna and Rossi, Guglielmo and Davis, Joe (2012) MCLI (Murty Classical Library of India) Archive (Issues 1 through 4). A series of archival captures that document the process of designing the interiors of the Murty Classical Library of India for Harvard University Press. Other. M9Design Limited.

Type of Research: Report
Creators: Ramanathan, Rathna and Rossi, Guglielmo and Davis, Joe
Description:

Many important classical texts in Indian literature have never reached a global audience; others are becoming unavailable even to Indian readers. This strategic design project was commissioned by the Murty Library, with the aim of creating an accessible classical library to provide modern translations of important Indian texts available in print and online. Funded by a trust set up by the Indian industrialist Rohan Murty and overseen by Harvard University Press, Ramanathan set out to create a framework for the design of the printed book interiors, digital texts and Indic typography for jacket designs.

Ramanathan developed this series of ‘Archive’ publications as a method of sharing the research with the Murty/Harvard team of senior editors, translators, and the design and production team. These publications embed references to original Indic manuscripts alongside proposals for the visual identity and interface of future publications. Ramanathan is primary author and editor with two research assistants. Research was based on key subject areas: history of the book and printing in India, language and scripts of India, reading and reader interactions with texts and bilingual translations employing multi-script typography. The typesetting and design of bilingual Indic texts of such range and complexity is unprecedented in modern book design practice and poses many challenges that were addressed through three lines of enquiry. First, to establish a systematic bilingual book design for English translations of texts in ten different Indian languages and scripts grouped into four categories: North Brahmic (Sanskrit, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali), South Brahmic (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada), Perso-Arabic (Urdu) and Prakrit (Pali). Second, to accommodate two genres in the template design: poetry and prose. Third, as Indian texts do not use italics or bold, it was imperative to establish an Indic hierarchy and grammar through the application of typographic rules.

Publisher/Broadcaster/Company: M9Design Limited
Your affiliations with UAL: Colleges > Central Saint Martins
Date: 2012
Date Deposited: 23 Jan 2014 14:50
Last Modified: 23 Jan 2014 14:50
Item ID: 6373
URI: https://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/id/eprint/6373

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