By Vibhuti Agarwal
The hype behind India’s announcement of a new rupee symbol is starting to fade, but the designer behind it has been receiving praise from around the world. The government hopes the distinctive new symbol will help separate its fast-growing economy from others that also refer to their currencies as “rupees.” The symbol shares some traits with other global currencies, with straight lines cutting through the letter R, but it also has its own unique look. Thirty one-year-old D. Udaya Kumar, a post-graduate student from the country’s premier Indian Institute of Technology, who recently took up an assistant professorship at IIT Guwahati – gives The Wall Street Journal a behind-the-scenes look at his work.
WSJ: What difference has winning this made to your life?
D.Udaya Kumar: After winning, I have been receiving calls and wishes from all over the world, I am really thankful to them. I should say I have earned lots of people’s good wishes, their love and affection. At a personal level, I would always like to remain the same whether it was before the results or after. I hope and pray to God that pride doesn’t get into my mind.
D.Udaya Kumar
WSJ: Where did you get your inspiration to create a design that would symbolize Indian culture as well as appeal to the international market?
D.Udaya Kumar: The competition had a set of guidelines. One was that the symbol should reflect out cultural ethos and tradition. I focused on the cultural aspect of the design. I looked at various Indian imageries that best reflected our culture. After researching them, I thought Indian scripts best represented our culture and were unique as compared to other scripts in the world. With Devanagri script, I also try to blend the Roman script to give a universality. My research in typography also helped me in arriving at this concept. Read more at http://j.mp/b9IM2X
Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam is the designer of the Indian rupee symbol. He is an assistant professor at IIT Guwahati. His design was selected from among five short listed symbols. Udaya Kumar explained that the design is based on the Indian tricolour.
D.Udaya Kumar was born on 10 October 1978 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Alma mater:
IDC, IIT Bombay (PhD)
IDC, IIT Bombay (MDes)
Anna University (B.Arch.)
Occupation: Assistant professor, IIT Guwahati
Known for: The designer of Indian rupee symbol (2010)
