Ananda Maharjan, Typographer and Graphic Designer in Kathmandu

Graphic Designer and  Type Designer from Kathmandu, Nepal, 29 years old, 9 years experience in design field, also a CSS Developer and Photographer. Recently working in Grafioffshore Nepal as a Senior Graphic Designer.

Why are you a Graphic Designer?
I was always interested in Design and Typography.

Did you attend school for fine art or design?
I was a Managment student because there were no any design colleges in Nepal at that time. After completion of Bachelor in Business Administration, I attended a two years intermediate course in Fine Arts from Lalitkala Fine Art Campus.

You have a distinct style of Design. How long did it take you to develop your style?
I don’t think I have consistent style of Design. It keeps on changing everytime.

How did you develop your fascination for Typography and creating your own type faces?
I always wanted to try new fonts for my designs. Seeing same devanagari fonts everywhere was boring. Then, I tried creating fonts with little know how.  People need to understand the importance of distinct typography in design and branding. There are some really good Nepali Devanagari fonts designed in Nepal but they have become old and overused now. Every advertisement looks the same because of the fonts. So, I’m trying to inspire new designers to try something new.

Have you converted your type designs as computer fonts?
Yes, all my fonts which are completed can be downloaded free from www.nepalifonts.blogspot.com and www.anandakm.com.np I’m still working on some new devanagari font designs which will be posted when completed. The devanagari fonts are based on old QWERTY keyboards, probably Remington typewriter, may be little different from hindi keyboard. I haven’t converted them to unicode. Unicode fonts for designing is not practiced in Nepal, unicode are only used in web.

Do you see a market for fonts? As in, are you able to sell your typefaces?
No, there’s no market for fonts in Nepal. I haven’t sold any fonts till now.

Hows the market for Graphic Design and Typography in Nepal?
The market for Graphic Design in Nepal is growing. It’s good. Now, there are lots of great design companies, advertising agencies, web companies,  publication houses and also design outsourcing. But not market for font . Some advertising agencies also create devanagari fonts. But completing whole sets of characters to make a font is really time consuming.

Were there any particular role models for you when you grew up?
Dont’t remember any.

Who was the most influential personality on your career in graphic design?
My brothers who are in design and advertising industries.

When did you start freelancing?
I only taken few projects from my friends companies and personal relations.

Was there any time when you wanted to quit graphic design?
Yes, after working 5 years in Print Designing, I quit and started web designing, css codings. And again after 2 years in css coding, I’m back working as a Graphic Designer.

Are many advertising agencies hiring graphic designers? Do you work more with agencies or publishers?
Yes, there are lots of creative ad agencies which hire designers and pay good amount. And there are also good magazine publishers and press, publication houses which hire designers. So, the scope of Graphic Designing  is growing in Nepal. I have worked with publication houses, web companies, some ad agencies and outsourcing companies.

Do you have clients who give you steady work or do you advertise for new clients often?
Yes, I have some regular clients. I really don’t advertise for new clients.

Any other Indian graphic designers who you admire?
Right now, I remember Achyut Palav and Satya Rajpurohit.

What advice do you have for aspiring creative professionals? Would you advise them to take on graphic design as a career option?
Sure, I encourage them to take on graphic design as a career. And I want to inspire them to try something new typography and come up with new nepali devanagari fonts and I’m always ready them to help them.

Do you think Clients are opening up to keeping aside a decent respectable budget for design work? Do you think clients are understanding that they need to invest in Design as a communication tool and also to cut the clutter, and that good design comes at a price?
There are various types of clients in Nepal. Some pay good amount for good work while some pay less and want unique designs. Some clients want clean design, while some doesn’t want to leave any white spaces in design, they want to fill all the spaces with text, images and big logos. So, it also becomes our responsibility to educate clients and convince them to approve better designs.

Who would you like to take out for dinner?
Park Min Young

What’s on your iPod?
Priscilla Ahn, Kina Grannis, Dia Frampton, Narayan Gopal, BhaktaRaj Acharya etc.

Mac or PC?
PC and Dell Laptop