Meet Satya Rajpurohit, a visionary NID grad from Ahmedabad transforming digital typography with his startup, Indian Type Foundry (ITF).
He recognised that India had a rich typographic heritage, with over 11 official writing systems and yet, there was a lack of quality fonts for Indian languages.
Satya's journey began at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, where his passion for type design was ignited.
In his third year at NID, he “stumbled upon an unexpected opportunity”, an internship in type design at Linotype, a pioneer in making high-quality typefaces.
His internships at Linotype in Germany and Dalton Maag in the UK were pivotal in preparing him to set up his own venture.
In 2009, Satya co-founded ITF to create a premium font collection for Indian languages, driven by a desire for cultural preservation, innovation, and addressing the needs of India’s diverse linguistic heritage.
ITF was established through a collaboration with Dutch typographer Peter Bilak, who offered Satya the chance to design a Devanagari font. When no Indian foundries agreed to publish it, Satya launched his own foundry with just one font.
The firm clocks an annual revenue of close to $2 million and has around 300 clients from Fortune 500 companies.
ITF's fonts are now used by tech giants like Apple, Google, and Samsung, showcasing Indian typography globally.
However, ITF had to face numerous challenges, including scarcity of skilled type designers in India and cultivating a market for fonts.
Satya explains that while traditional fonts, like Times New Roman and Arial, focus on readability and versatility, experimental fonts embrace innovative shapes, concepts and designs.
The company’s most popular font is the Kohinoor series designed by Satya. Before Kohinoor, there was no font that could support all Indian languages. Apple has also licensed the Kohinoor font family.
Satya envisions a future where Indian typefaces are celebrated and widely used, preserving cultural heritage.
“I cannot imagine a single day not thinking about fonts. When I design fonts, it’s like I’m designing outfits for words so they can express different emotions and ideas,” he shares.
Looking ahead, Satya plans to expand ITF's retail library with a primary focus on inclusivity. He wants to represent not just English and Indian languages but also endangered and less-represented languages worldwide.