Inspiration Armenia

A series of original art works inspired by the forms of Armenian letterforms (originally designed as typefaces by Puzzovio). Exhibited in the National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan on 8–25th October 2005 by invitation from the Armenian Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs. (This is Armenia’s most prestigious venue for exhibitions). The works exhibited were a development of the earlier ‘Mesrob and Yacob’ exhibition. The exhibition in The National Gallery in Yerevan was part of the country’s 1600 years of the Armenian alphabet anniversary celebrations, beginning on the Armenian ‘Literacy Day’ – 8 October 2005, when the exhibition opening was televised on 2 Armenian national television channels. It consisted of a series of twenty-four framed experimental works that explored the aesthetic qualities of some of the Armenian letterforms in a purely abstract way, creating tactile compositions using traditional craft methods employed by designers prior to the advent of computer technology. Media: ink, gouache paint, hand-made cartridge paper. The pieces are experiments, monochrome works based on the letterforms from Carolyn’s own design for display fonts for the Armenian alphabet. They feature interplay of form and counter form and experiments with media and layering of images. Digest of evidence: catalogue: ISBN99941-2-007-7; invitations to exhibition opening; photographs/video on CD-ROM. Due to the attention this exhibition received in the Armenian diaspora, selected works were later digitised and sent electronically for an exhibition of international artists’ work, by invitation from Edik Boghosian the curator of the ‘Pharos’ Graphic design exhibition held at the Tehran Artist’s Forum, Morteza Momayez Gallery, Iran, 14–19 July 2007. Digest of evidence: email invitation to exhibit; CD-Rom of photographs of the exhibition venue and the work on display

The remarkable legacy of Mashtots

This solo exhibition/event was held at St. Vartan’s Cathedral Diocesian Hall, Manhattan, (An important place of worship and cultural centre for the Armenian diaspora in the USA.), by invitation from his Eminence Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Aram Arkun, Co-ordinator, Krikor & Clara Zohrab Information Center, Armenian Church of America (Eastern). The exhibition comprised 17 A1 size works, 11 previously exhibited, together with 6 new pieces entitled ‘Fragments’ which extend the investigation to include experiments – no longer monochrome – using collage, textile and paper and incorporate elements based on an Armenian type designer, Edik Ghabuzian*. Carolyn Puzzovio gave a public lecture presentation and other speakers were Dr. Abraham Terian, Professor of Armenian Patristic and Academic Dean at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary in New Rochelle, New York, and editor of the St. Nersess Theological Review and Peter Bain, type designer of ‘Incipit’, New York. This was followed by a audience –interactive panel discussion. Digest of evidence: exhibition photographs; printed publicity; article in ‘Ararat’ magazine, USA; US newspaper Articles: ‘At Diocese, Panel looks at Armenian Letters from a Design Perspective’ – Armenian Reporter 18/11/06; ‘Diocese Hosts Three Experts on Design of Armenian Alphabet’ – Armenian Mirror-Spectator 25/11/07; websites. *Puzzovio is now collaborating with Edik Ghabuzyan, Head of ‘Saving and Creating Armenian Fonts’/National Book Chamber of Armenia acting as an advisor in developing fonts. She was invited by Armen Grigoryan, Executive Secretary: Information Technologies Development Support Council, to give a paper at the conference: ‘The importance of Armenian fonts input and their copyright maintenance for the further development of IT sector’ (sic) arranged by Microsoft /Armenian Govt.,11 July 2007. It was featured on Armenian news channels and reported on in 3 newspapers. Extracts from this conference paper ‘Armenian Font Matters’ were translated and reviewed in the Armenian national newspaper ‘Hayastany Hanrapetutiun Daily’

Meet the Armenian

‘Meet the Armenian’ Lecture: Typographic Circle November 2005. The Typographic Circle is a British organisation of professional graphic designers, typographers and type designers. Present Chair: Bruno Maag of Dalton Maag, a well-known design company. This talk was a 45-minute presentation which explained the importance of the Armenian alphabet to the Armenian diaspora and the literature and therefore culture of the country. It introduced the audience to the alphabet’s forms, history and development and showed many examples of the myriad ways the alphabet is used today – using illustrations which were Carolyn Puzzovio’s own photographs taken during her visit to Yerevan in October 2005

The story of the Armenian alphabet: part 2

The Baseline Issue 58 article (Part 2) of the research features the contemporary developments in Armenian typeface design. This work traces the development of type for the printing of Armenian books as various printers attempted to set up presses to print in Armenian, which wasn’t possible in Armenia until the late eighteenth century, due to political oppression. Significantly, there had been no illustrated summary of the history and development of Armenian type design and production published before. The choice of the acclaimed international design magazine Baseline enabled the information to be distributed widely and therefore promote the alphabet of the Armenian people

Mesrob & Yacob: the story of the Armenian alphabet

ATypI is a professional organisation founded in 1957. Their annual conference is the main international forum for designers and researchers in the field of type and typographic design to come together to discuss creative ideas; dissemination of research; issues of history and context and technological developments. Abstracts of papers are peer reviewed by a panel of international experts. In Puzzovio’s 45-minute presentation entitled: ‘Mesrob & Yacob – The Story of the Armenian alphabet’, alphabetic forms are traced from the fifth century AD to the present from pen-drawn variations – illustrated with Puzzovio’s collected photographs of rare manuscripts held in archives – through to the printed word, with examples of the types cut by renaissance and later punchcutters in Europe, to examples of novel 20th century lettering and digital type today. Digest of evidence: printed conference proceedings; website screen shots; photographs from event; CD-ROM/lecture transcript, Website. Puzzovio was later invited to speak at The Typographic Circle, London, November 2005 by its Chair: Bruno Maag of Dalton Maag, a well-known London design consultancy. The Typographic Circle is a professional organisation of British graphic designers, typographers and type designers. Entitled: ‘Meet the Armenian’: a 45-minute presentation which explained the importance of the Armenian alphabet to the Armenian diaspora, literature and therefore culture of the country. It introduced the audience to the alphabet’s forms, history and development and showed many examples of the myriad ways the alphabet is used today – using illustrations which were Puzzovio’s own photographs taken in Yerevan in October 2005. Digest of evidence: printed poster for the event; copy of Powerpoint slides; text of the lecture. Website: http://www.fontzone.com/?mode=article&id=6tfvarTs45BXbGYuuARh As a result of these 2 lectures, Carolyn has been asked to write an article for the ‘Fontzone’ website http://www.fontzone.co

Mesrob & Yacob: the Armenian alphabet and digital font design

Invited by the Rector of the Universitatea de Arta si Design (formerly the Cluj-Napoca Academy of Arts loan Andreescu), to exhibit her work and give a lecture., The exhibition was held from 6-9 April 2005 in the basement 'Galeria Casa Matei' in Matei Corvin House, a historically important fifteenth century city-centre building. The exhibition title referenced the originator of the alphabet, Masrob Mashtots and the first Armenian printer, Yacob Meghapart. The exhibits included 2 digitally-created display fonts for the Armenian alphabet – these characters were the 'tip of the iceberg' of the project which had traced and analysed the forms from the fifth century AD to the present through pen-drawn variations by Armenian scribes and types cut by the renaissance and later punchcutters in Europe. Also exhibited were a series of 17 framed experimental works that explore the aesthetic qualities of some of these unfamiliar letterforms in a purely abstract way, creating compositions using traditional craft methods employed by pre-digital age designers. The monochrome experimental pieces were based on the letterforms from her Armenian display font designs. Media: ink, gouache paint, hand-made cartridge paper. The exhibition was opened by Alexandru Alamoreanu, Dean of the Faculty. Puzzovio gave a lecture on her subject the following day. The work was featured on the 'Culture' pages of the daily newspaper 'Adevarul de Cluj' (ISSN 1220-3203) http://adevarul.cluj.astral.ro on 7th April. The weekly journal 'Informatia Cluj' also featured the exhibition. A further review written by Rostas-Peter Emese (in Hungarian) was published on a 'culture' website the same week. The interest generated by this exhibition led to the Armenian government invitation to exhibit in the National Gallery, Armenia. Digest of evidence: poster for the event; leaflet to accompany the exhibition; press cuttings; photographs; website

Armenian type matters

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"Lagoon" font: digital revival of an Armenian type design

Puzzovio's development of the OpenType font, "Lagoon" - a modern computer keyboard-compatible typeface for the Armenian alphabet - is based on traditions exemplified in rare Armenian books and manuscripts. Printed examples from library collections were photographed, examined and analysed to inform the design of a text type for present-day computer keyboarding based on the best of Armenian classical traditions and which contributes to the resources available to Armenian graphic designers to aid communication across the diaspora

Pictures based on Armenian alphabet

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