Home / ATypI Copenhagen 2025
Date Tuesday, April 22nd 2025
Venue Royal Danish Academy
Workshop

Expressive Gestural Calligraphy and Letterform Modulation

Chaitanya Shrikant Gokhale 2025 Chaitanya Shrikant Gokhale

Time: 3:00–6:00 PM
Price: FREE
Check-in: 2:00–2:45 PM

Register

This hands-on workshop invites participants to explore the dynamic world of expressive, gestural calligraphy and lettering. Designed to inspire creativity and experimentation, the session focuses on the art of modulating letterforms using both traditional and unconventional calligraphy tools. Participants will learn how to manipulate pressure, angles, and tool grips to create diverse letterform styles, unlocking the emotional essence conveyed through each modulation.

The workshop will also explore experimenting with compositions and patterns—abstract, legible, and non-legible—using letterforms from various global scripts such as Roman, Devanagari, and more. Guided in a playful, exploratory manner, participants will be encouraged to push boundaries, blending gestures with creativity to discover new design possibilities.

Each tool and technique brings unique expressive potential, offering participants the chance to develop an intuitive understanding of how tools perform and how their outputs can evoke emotion. While the focus remains on artistic exploration and technical skills, the process subtly reveals how calligraphy fosters mindful engagement, blending artistry with presence.

Spanning 90 to 120 minutes, this workshop is ideal for designers, typographers, and lettering enthusiasts looking to enhance their calligraphic practice with innovative, experimental approaches. Join us to transform letters into vivid expressions of art and emotion.

Chaitanya Shrikant Gokhale 2025
Speaker

Chaitanya Shrikant Gokhale

Chaitanya Gokhale is a calligrapher and design educator from India with a Doctorate in the emotional perception of Devanagari Calligraphy. Currently he serves as an Associate Professor of Visual Communication at Srishti Manipal Institute, Bangalore, India. With over 23 years of academia and industry experience, he has developed more than 20 experimental calligraphic styles/typefaces, blending traditional and contemporary methods. As an active practitioner, Chaitanya creates script-based artworks, and shares calligraphy tutorials with a global audience of over 105,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.

Chaitanya, an experienced mentor to undergraduate and postgraduate students, specializes in visual communication, branding, calligraphy, and typography. His inclusive teaching philosophy integrates traditional and digital practices to inspire cross-cultural storytelling. His research focuses on calligraphy, emotional perception, vernacular type design, and sustainable education, exploring how letterform variations influence emotional responses and mindfulness. By bridging traditional calligraphy with modern design, his work emphasizes visual communication’s role in cultural expression and social connection.

Chaitanya has served on the Doctoral Advisory Committee, Curriculum Design Committee, and Board of Studies at multiple universities. A frequent speaker and panelist, he continues to explore how calligraphy connects with mindfulness, and innovation, advancing the dialogue between tradition and contemporary design.