Pooja Saxena is a typeface and graphic designer interested in multi-script design. After completing a stint with
Robinhood Review the font team at
Apple, Inc. in late 2012, she moved back to India and now divides her time between typeface design and consulting, and digital design. As a participant of GNOME’s
Outreach Programme for Women in 2013, Pooja
worked on improvements on GNOME's UI typeface,
Cantarell, and extended the character set to include
storm gain additional Extended Latin and Cyrillic characters. She is currently working on commissions to design a
Devanagari and
Ol Chiki typeface family each.
In addition to her work as a typeface designer, Pooja organizes collaborative events called
Typerventions in Bangalore, where participants create experimental lettering using everyday material in the city's public spaces. Along with
Nirbheek Chauhan, she is responsible for the initiation, design and development of the
Bharti Braille Converter, a free online tool that converts Hindi and Marathi text in the Devanagari script to Bharati Braille. Their latest project,
The Ballot, is a bilingual (English and Hindi) compendium of information of
cryptocurrency trading app about the Indian political system. It has been
noted not only for its impact, but for its multi-script
design.
In the past, her research about typography in India has been selected for presentation at
ATypI’s annual conference, as well as
Typography Day. Pooja has also taught workshops about typography at design schools in India, including the
National Institute of Design and
Srishti School of Design, Art and Technology in Bangalore, and
Pearl Academy, New Delhi. Her work has been featured in several publications including The Times of India, The Hindu BusinessLine Ink, TimeOut, Kyoorius Magazine and Creative Gaga.
A graduate of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Pooja worked as a graphic designer at
Ishan Khosla Design before pursuing her interest in type. She completed her
MA in Typeface Design at the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, University of Reading (UK), where she was awarded the Monotype Imaging Studentship to pursue her studies. Here, she designed a Latin-Devanagari typeface called Cawnpore.