Rob Keller began out in a advertising and marketing function at a German sort foundry, writing copy about different folks’s fonts. Simply three months in, he realized it wasn’t the trail he wished.
He had his personal concepts about how fonts needs to be introduced, however nobody gave the impression to be doing it the way in which he imagined. The one actual possibility was to construct one thing of his personal.
So, he stayed for an additional yr – determining what his personal factor would appear like and making actionable plans. In 2008, he lastly made the bounce. He moved to Berlin and began Mota Italic, a kind foundry formed by his imaginative and prescient.
As he bootstrapped his store, he wanted to deal with extra than simply the inventive work. For Rob, that included managing the web site – and, for some time, coping with fixed downtime and server points on his previous host. The change to Hostinger’s managed WordPress internet hosting modified all that.
Meet Mota Italic
Mota Italic is an impartial sort foundry that creates customized and retail fonts for shoppers worldwide, starting from small cultural establishments to luxurious automotive manufacturers and massive tech corporations.
Across the time he was constructing Mota Italic, Rob had already begun learning Devanagari – the script used to put in writing Hindi and several other different Indian languages. He was drawn to a writing system that he thought wasn’t getting the design consideration it deserved.
Then, at a pal’s celebration in Berlin, he met Kimya Gandhi, a kind designer from Mumbai who shared the identical fascination with Devanagari letterforms.
A shared love of 1 script was a partnership, then a wedding, then a two-person foundry that’s been working for practically twenty years.
Over 18 years of impartial operation, the 2 of them have constructed a retail library of 17 sort households and 609 particular person fonts – totaling over one million letters.
They’ve additionally served 30 shoppers throughout 43 customized initiatives, producing 231 customized typefaces, with greater than 72,000 letters drawn solely by hand.
What makes these numbers wild is that it’s nonetheless simply the 2 of them.
Rob handles the Latin scripts and the technical facet of the enterprise, whereas Kimya focuses on Devanagari and Indic typefaces. Collectively, they handle the end-to-end enterprise processes: design, manufacturing, gross sales, and the web site.
On any given day, they’re juggling two to 5 initiatives without delay – and the longest-running one has been in progress since 2009. Virtually 17 years on a single typeface. That’s as a result of each little element issues.
Fonts form how we learn avenue indicators, navigate cities, and expertise complete languages. However as Kimya put it, “Typography is so invisible since you see it in every single place round you, however you don’t cease and suppose that anyone really designed these letterforms.”
For Rob and Kimya, that quiet, meticulous work has been the gratifying rhythm of their enterprise.
Practically twenty years within the trade, nonetheless going sturdy
When Kimya was learning graphic design in India, Devanagari typography wasn’t even a part of the curriculum. That’s a script utilized by over 600 million folks, and but it wasn’t getting the identical design consideration as Latin.
She found the hole on her personal – and turned it into her life’s work.
“As soon as I found this, it was such an important factor to try to be taught one thing extra about my very own tradition and get to design in it,” Kimya mentioned.
That specialization grew to become Mota Italic’s aggressive edge. By going deep on a script that bigger companies neglected, Rob and Kimya carved out a distinct segment that’s sustained them for practically twenty years.
Their typefaces now seem in cities throughout India – on restaurant indicators and in on a regular basis settings. Kimya’s household generally sends her images of her work noticed within the wild.
For Kimya, the which means is greater than visibility. “I discover it very rewarding that I could make Indic scripts look extra enjoyable and get folks enthusiastic about this,” she mentioned. “It’s such a big a part of my identification, and I feel it’s good to get to discover that extra.”
One transfer, massive affect: Mota Italic’s migration to Hostinger
Aside from ardour, which means, or expertise, constructing a enterprise takes the best basis to develop on.
For a two-person foundry that sells fonts instantly via its web site, downtime means misplaced gross sales. Their website is a WordPress and WooCommerce setup that handles all the pieces: portfolio, weblog, merch, and the font store itself. If that goes down, the enterprise goes darkish.
“Earlier than transferring to Hostinger, the web site was simply much more annoying,” Rob mentioned. “There was extra handbook work I needed to do, and issues had been breaking.”
Rob described the migration to Hostinger as “simply magically occurred” – fast, clean, and painless. As soon as they had been on Hostinger, the distinction was quick.
“Now I don’t have to fret concerning the web site. It’s simply working,” he recounted.
Rob additionally intentionally selected to maintain internet hosting easy and out of the way in which. “I pay as you go for a number of years, and now I simply don’t even give it some thought,” he mentioned. “In a wierd approach, it feels prefer it’s free now.”
No tech background, but working a world storefront
Kimya works with a specialised ability set. So when it got here to constructing her personal web site, she didn’t see it as a pure extension of her work. “I’ve been procrastinating making my very own web site as a result of it felt tremendous technical,” she mentioned.
The Mota Italic website’s preliminary launch required Rob to be the only technician, as constructing on WordPress again then required a sure degree of coding and technical know-how.
However at this time, instruments just like the AI Web site Builder for WordPress have made platforms like WordPress vastly extra approachable. And with options constructed for simpler WordPress administration, Hostinger ensures ease of use doesn’t cease as soon as your website is dwell.
“I’m glad that it’s not like one thing that it’s a must to sit and write code,” Kimya mentioned. “There are all these visible instruments out there, which I resonate with rather more.”
And the associated fee barrier? Additionally gone. “It doesn’t have to value that a lot to start out,” she added. “It’s not such as you want an enormous funding once you begin your design enterprise in any respect anymore.”
The liberty to point out up genuinely as they’re
For Mota Italic, an internet site isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s the spine of their enterprise, as Rob described, “We don’t have a bodily presence. It’s the place folks come to see us and our work.” And Kimya provides, “It’s on the middle of all the pieces we do.”
They might distribute via bigger platforms, and Rob acknowledges that distributors generally provide higher attain.
However proudly owning their very own web site provides them one thing a distributor can’t: full management over how their work is introduced, how their model feels, and the way their viewers experiences the foundry.
Kimya echoed this, “It’s vital for us to have our personal platform and web site as a result of it provides us the liberty and suppleness to undertaking ourselves within the tone of voice that we wish.”
That independence runs on Hostinger. They handle a number of web sites – the primary Mota Italic web site, Rob’s portfolio, and Kimya’s private web site – all from a single hPanel dashboard. Domains, internet hosting, renewals, and even WordPress updates are only a few clicks away.
Rob particularly known as out hPanel as certainly one of his favourite options. “You simply log in, and all the pieces is in a single place,” he mentioned. “It’s easy to seek out and to change all the pieces and simply to keep up it.”
Your flip to place your work on the market
Mota Italic’s journey is proof {that a} specialised ardour can change into a sustainable enterprise.
You don’t want a giant workforce. You don’t want an enormous finances. You want a craft you care about, an internet site that works, and the willingness to present your thought an opportunity.
Each Rob and Kimya shared their recommendation:
“When you’re a inventive individual wanting to start out one thing, simply bounce in and get began,” Rob mentioned. “Make an internet site, make your merchandise, no matter you’re doing. Simply make it and go for it.”
Including to what Rob shared, Kimya mentioned, “When you’re enthusiastic about one thing, give it all the pieces you’ve and see the place it takes you.”
So for those who’ve been sitting on an thought, take a web page from Rob and Kimya – create your personal web site with Hostinger and put your work on the market.
The instruments are extra accessible than ever, and the world doesn’t want one other individual questioning “what if.” It wants one other one that jumped in.
Larassatti Dharma is a content material author with 4+ years of expertise within the website hosting trade. She has populated the web with over 100 YouTube scripts and articles round website hosting, digital advertising and marketing, and e mail advertising and marketing. When she’s not writing, Laras enjoys solo touring across the globe or attempting new recipes in her kitchen. Comply with her on LinkedIn
