Eight Parts of a National Struggle

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'Eight Parts of a National Struggle' is a primer on the state of primary education in India. The book borrows content from various sources as the 'PROBE' survey of India, 1999 as well as a few other texts.

This project was submission for book: typography & layout design assignment for the MDes. course at DAIICT. The constraints were monochrome, no-images, content communication design, research.

The book has eight small chapters, having a common theme of representation. The eight chapters signify the 8 years of free basic education in India - though subversively.

The book follows a 1/3 - 2/3 grid both horizontally as well as vertically. The internal page layout is mirrored.

The design of the book layout has been done in a manner that it provides the reader with multiple points of entry. Various characterizations are employed to do this.

1) Each chapter opens with a chapter theme a shaded box covering the agenda of the chapter from a reflective angle - it is factual and non-argumentative (Font 1 & 2).

2) The chapter heading (repeated as on the chapter opeing page) is followed by a background and contextualization that will serve the arguments put forth in the chapter. These are italicised (Font 3).

3) The main argument begins after this in body text. Headings inside this are Bold and Italicised (Font 3).

4) At various places, in order to support the argument are citations, as far as practicable adjacent to the argument in negative grid - the source of the citation (wherever available) is in Bold (Font 2).

5) Another reflective element in the book is a vernacular and un-translated section in every chapter. The purpose of this is to emphasize some of the challenges, paradoxes and ideologies directly from the field.

6) Every chapter contains also a section for highlighting the thoughts of an Indian (and sometimes, a world) intellectual on the subject of (basic) education.