Lines, letters and forms

Facilitated by Hiral Bhagat

Part of Methods Series

Historically, calligraphy is considered the ‘art of beautiful writing’ before the invention of the printing press. In today’s digital world, calligraphy is more than just writing. There is a fundamental difference between functionally written words and expressively written words. Today, calligraphy is the art of creating expressive and meaningful letters and words. The focus is on the graphic form of the alphabets of the script. This understanding develops a new visual language that is different from functional typography.

What to expect from the workshop:

Calligraphy follows principles of drawings to create expressive forms. The focus of the workshop is to create variations of letter forms. The participants will have the freedom to express their creativity by following the basic principles of drawing. Tools and techniques are very important and integral parts of the artist’s process of creating art. The workshop will encourage participants to use a single tool to know the possibilities and limitations of the chosen tool to create letter forms. The exploration can begin with basic lines and can be stretched to complex visual forms. This process will make them aware of the potential of calligraphy to become a visual art form.

Who can join:

Anybody with basic understanding and interest for art and design can join the workshop. There is no need to have any formal calligraphy skill.

About the artist:

Hiral Bhagat, a pioneer in Gujarati (mother tongue) Calligraphy, is the first female International Award-winning Calligrapher from Gujarat. Her work focuses on taking calligraphy in visual art form. Her artworks selected and awarded at Calligraphies in Conversations, San Francisco, 2019, Tool Art-National Library of Singapore, 2019, Cheongju Jikji World Calligraphy Exhibition, South Korea, International Design Conference at Women in Design Plus, 2020, Mumbai, the Silk Road Calligraphy by Iranian National Commission for UNESCO, All India Fine Arts and Craft Society, Delhi 2023, Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata, 1st Art, Architecture & Design Biennale, New Delhi, 2023, Kochi-Muzirish Biennale 2023. Work featured in International Calligraphy magazine called Letter Arts Review, 2023. Her calligraphy poster has won awards at Typoday in 2021 & 2023. She was part of the International Calligraphy Art Camp by WZCC, Udaipur, 2022. She was a jury member at prestigious calligraphy events and has been invited to teach cal