The Letter Journey of Nooh P. Ahmed, the Mampad Native Who Designed 25 Malayalam Fonts
In digital designs and posters, the first thing that attracts our attention is often the beauty of the lettering. Letters do more than convey words — they shape readability, visual appeal, and the overall tone of a design. Bringing life to these letters is Nooh P. Ahmed, a native of Mampad, whose creative journey in typography has been making waves in the Malayalam design world.
Through his type design venture FontAshan, Nooh has completed 25 Malayalam fonts in this year alone, creating a strong impact in the field of Malayalam typography.
In an era where digital design has been transformed by AI and emerging technologies, this young talent and his initiative FontAshan are adding more life, beauty, and originality to Malayalam letterforms. Fonts such as Peruma, Garima, Charutha, Nayana, Polima, Akhila, Kalima, Chandrika, Shobhika, and many others are part of Nooh’s growing collection of more than twenty-five Malayalam fonts.
Nooh has completed 25 Malayalam fonts in this year alone, creating a strong impact in the field of Malayalam typography.
‘Living Letters’ Exhibition of A.K Haridas, Kochi, Kerala
Trending Across Social Media
Today, many of Kerala’s leading political, religious, cultural, and social organizations are using Nooh’s fonts in their designs. Major brands in Kerala, including Milma, Amul, MyG, and Oxygen, as well as publishing divisions such as Mathrubhumi Books, online news portals, and advertising agencies, have widely used his fonts in posters, billboards, print materials, and promotional designs.
During the World Cup season, many of the large flex boards and cut-outs seen across public spaces featured Nooh’s fonts. The same was true for many festival-season advertising boards and seasonal campaign visuals.
In the previous Kerala Assembly election, the official taglines of all three political fronts, along with campaign designs for candidates across all 140 constituencies, reportedly used Nooh’s fonts. The lettering used on the backdrop of the swearing-in ceremony stage of the V. D. Satheesan government was also designed using his typefaces. Nooh says it brings him great joy to see his lettering being chosen not only by public figures such as the Chief Minister, Opposition Leader, ministers, and MLAs, but also by various government offices.
The Nooh Touch in Advertising Design
Nooh’s journey into type design began with a simple realization: Malayalam lacked enough versatile options when it came to selecting suitable letterforms for news, advertisements, and posters. That insight inspired him to start creating fonts of his own.
He has previously earned recognition in poster-making and painting competitions at the MG University and University of Calicut arts festivals. He also has experience designing logos for district-level arts festivals, various organizations, and institutions. After completing his M.Sc. in Computer Science, his experience in design and his artistic talent naturally led him into the world of font creation.
Among Nooh’s noteworthy contributions are the first Malayalam pixel font, tall-style fonts, sports fonts, decorative fonts, and calligraphy fonts, all of which have received excellent appreciation. His major contribution lies in the creation of English-Malayalam bilingual Unicode fonts designed to suit different design needs.
These fonts are created using the reformed Malayalam Unicode script, making them compatible with modern digital platforms. Each font is designed to be usable even for mobile designers, and most families include multiple variants such as Regular, Bold, Italic, Thin, and other styles — ranging from 4 to 15 variations in a single font family.
Each typeface is carefully developed in a wide range of styles, including pixel, decorative, serif, sans serif, rounded, distorted, and stripped forms.
Delivering a session at the Typography Workshop organized by the Dep. of Malayalam, Govt. College, Tanur, Kerala.
Beyond Language Boundaries
Building on his experience in Malayalam typography, Nooh has also expanded his work into Tamil type design under the name FontAnnan. His goal is to bring greater typographic diversity to Indian languages by combining new technology, language awareness, and design excellence.
He has also completed an Arabic-Malayalam font and is working on typography projects in collaboration with design students from institutions such as the National Institute of Design and the Kerala State Institute of Design.
Features on FontAshan published in Mathrubhumi, Siraj Daily, and Nila Times.
Every Letter Matters
Font creation is far from easy. It is a process that demands skill, focus, patience, and deep attention to detail. Beyond vowels and consonants, each font includes around 400 glyphs, covering symbols, combined characters, and a variety of essential letterforms.
With every new typeface, this “FontAshan” from Kerala continues his effort to make Malayalam letters more beautiful while preserving the uniqueness, elegance, and visual spirit of the language.
As Nooh P. Ahmed says: “The acceptance my type designs receive is proof that the unforgettable beauty of Malayalam lettering once seen on old street walls is becoming popular again. Letters are the visible face of a language. Giving them beauty is equal to honoring the language itself.”
Nooh is the son of the late Puliyakodan Ahmed and Pathumunni of Mampad. His wife is K. M. Fathima Shameema, a native of Padinjattumuri. They have a daughter, Faiha Fathima.
A video feature on FontAshan Type Studio aired on Reporter TV, one of Kerala’s leading news channels is below.
Dark
Leave a Reply