Language Spotlight: Bengali

In my countless hours scrolling Pinterest a few months ago, I ended up in the endless black hole that is the literature recommendation section. Through various genre pages, several books kept coming up that the text was illegible, only to realize that they were all in a completely different language. One recurring theme throughout my exploration of Bengali literature was that of great contrast and color use, where the text was largely exaggerated and fit in nicely with the often blocky (appearing to have a hand-painted look) designs. Some examples can be seen here.

Viewing how typography is changed throughout different cultures, I find it interesting in how Bengalis use art in context with the titles themselves, where I couldn't help but wonder if they are actually related to the story itself. Unfortunately, translated authentic Bengali literature is hard to come by, specifically the ones with ornate covers as shown earlier. One popular exploration of type through Bengali covers is that of the novel Kumayuner Manushkheko Bagh (translated to Man-eating Tiger of Kumaon), where the text is displayed in what appears to be bullet holes in the tiger skin background, demonstrating the ferocity of the beast.

That's all, thank you!