This long weekend I got back to putting in the hard work into India Street Lettering https://indiastreetlettering.com/, starting with building a new collection for signs on homes in Pune https://indiastreetlettering.com/collection/pune-homes/.
Even if you own the book, you’ll find some new lettering to enjoy here 🤩 I really wanted to include मालती माधव in the book but didn’t manage it, so its publication on the archive makes me very happy ✨
I am so happy that this metal ribbon lettering has survived in Bangalore. It is affixed on the façade of the building where I worked over 15 years ago. That time in life was my first taste of #adulting — new job and new city. Seems like a lifetime ago!
📍 Frazer Town, Bangalore (Karnataka)
📅 May 2025
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/sighting/padmalaya/
Marking Madras Day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madras_Day with one of my favourite signs from the city — a hand painted one for a screen printing supplies store.
📍 Chennai (Tamil Nadu)
📅 July 2025
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/sighting/advance-screen-supplies-2/
Sign painting shops have the best signs (duh!).
📍 Kochi (Kerala)
📅 May 2025
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/sighting/arts/ + https://indiastreetlettering.com/sighting/arts-2/
Simplification and geometrization of Devanagari has been on my mind lately (psst, TypeTogether’s upcoming, multiscript Futura® 100 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmdi2VWVmBY). I’ve been sifting through past examples and this sign stood out.
So many ideas here despite streamlining — the obtuse leaf shaped foundational form, horizontal strokes of ज न standing in visually for the headline, the differentiation of ु ँ. What’s not to love?
📍 Pune (MH)
📅 May 2025
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/sighting/gunjan/
In April, I went to the Broadway Book Centre in Panjim to hunt down books about Goa by local historian Vasco Pinho https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/Panjim%E2%80%99s-evergreen-story-teller/122031, and was delighted to find that the shop is housed in a building I had visited before to photograph its sign.
The multi-use Ashirvad building has the loveliest metal sign with ribbon-like cursive letters. Not in the best shape at the moment, but still very striking!
📍 Panjim (Goa)
📅 April 2025
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/sighting/ashirvad/
Sometimes you see the letterforms on a sign and all you want to do is experiment with turning them into a full typeface. If I didn’t have tonnes on my plate already, I’d be doing that to this Devanagari sign for Sancheti Chambers. That blocky स is simply chef’s kiss 👌🏽
📍 Pune (Maharashtra)
📅 May 2025
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/sighting/sancheti-chambers/
Today let’s put two clock towers side-by-side. On the left is Dinbai Clock Tower erected in Ahmedabad in 1961, and on the right, the public clock on the Industrial Assurance Building in Mumbai, built about 25 years prior.
Which numerals do you like better? I am partial to the counterless Deco ones 🤩
📍 Ahmedabad (Gujarat) & Mumbai (Maharashtra)
📅 2025 & 2024 respectively
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/type-of-establishment/clock-tower/
Last week I went type-exploring in Bangalore’s Russell Market (thanks to Vishnu https://www.instagram.com/vishphotoblog/’s tip), and was pleasantly surprised to see this Deco sign for a local dairy. It felt like it had been dropped there straight from Mumbai’s Oval Maidan https://indiastreetlettering.com/collection/oval-maidan/
📍 Bangalore (Karnataka)
📅 May 2025
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/sighting/curzon-dairy-farm/
Pooja Saxena
Anirban Mitra