This year has been a reminder to tend to the little spaces on the internet I call my own with more care, starting with https://indiastreetlettering.com/.
I set up this website years ago to collect photographs I take of street lettering around the country, but Iโve been terrible at keeping it up-to-date. That changes now. And if I can keep myself motivated, Iโll share a picture from it here every week ๐ค๐ผ
Nastaliq, Devanagari and Latin come together on this sign for a traditional medicine centre, where space is expertly carved out for each script without cramping their styles.
๐ Shastri Market, Amritsar (Punjab)
๐
December 2017
๐ https://indiastreetlettering.com/house-of-surgery/
An Art Deco postcard from Mumbai ๐
๐ Oval Maidan, Mumbai (Maharashtra)
๐
May 2016
๐ https://indiastreetlettering.com/queens-court/
One of the things I miss about living in Bangalore is the old neon signs on MG Road, many decrepit now. This one is a favourite: from the swash of the โVโ to pairing the narrow script with the squarish sans, and the ampersand to the subtly similar โkโ in both styles.
๐ MG Road, Bangalore (Karnataka)
๐
October 2019
๐ https://indiastreetlettering.com/vijayalakshmi-silks-sarees/
An unexpected bit of Cyrillic in the heart of Delhi on this bilingual plaque marking the statue of Russian poet, Aleksandr Pushkin. Over the years, the bloated Devanagari เคถ in this sign has gone from pet peeve to something I have a soft spot for.
๐ Mandi House, Delhi
๐
November 2018
๐ https://indiastreetlettering.com/alekasandr-pushkins-statue/
This hand-painted sign is so clever to use the eyes usually associated with the goddess Kali to create the chandra bindu in the word เคฎเคพเค (Hindi for mother). The flourishes are not a bad touch either.
๐ Swaroop Nagar, Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh)
๐
January 2019
๐ https://indiastreetlettering.com/maa/
On every trip to Ahmedabad, I am struck by how easily the Gujarati script is moulded into to geometric forms, sometimes abstract enough to stump me and my novice reading skills. Last time around, I noticed this sign for a cycle repair shop that I loved: its compact shapes, gently curved strokes and undulating baseline.
๐ Shahpur, Ahmedabad (Gujarat)
๐
December 2018
๐ https://indiastreetlettering.com/naveen-repairing-centre/
Go for the birds, stay for the hand-painted letters! If I was responsible for getting people to Okhla Bird Sanctuary, thatโs what Iโd be telling them.
Take this welcome sign for instance, well-intentioned but lovingly crooked. The เคง in the เคฆเฅเคง conjunct is beyond tiny and my favourite bit: the shrike has pushed the เฅ matra off the stem in the เคนเฅ.
๐ Okhla Bird Sanctuary, Noida (Uttar Pradesh)
๐
February 2022
๐ https://indiastreetlettering.com/okhla-bird-sanctuary/
#IndiaStreetLettering #Noida #Handpainted #OkhlaBirdSanctuary
That loopy cursive has my heart!
๐ Car Street, Bangalore (Karnataka)
๐
August 2016
๐ https://indiastreetlettering.com/champaka-distributors/
These two signs for the same building are in gold, on ground-level, and most importantly, completely and utterly dismissive of visually matching Devanagari and Latin scripts. I wrote a little bit about them in my newsletter https://mailchi.mp/05e0957f4a95/typographic-eye3-cp-type-tour a few months ago.
๐ Connaught Place, Delhi
๐
November 2019
๐ https://indiastreetlettering.com/indra-palace/ + https://indiastreetlettering.com/indra-palace-2/
When I visited Chennai five years ago, I spent a morning photographing signs for hardware stores in George Town. Among them was this one for Quality Machine Tools, which featured the most delicious, high-contrast Tamil lettering.
๐ George Town, Chennai
๐
March 2018
๐ https://indiastreetlettering.com/quality-machine-tools/
@nicksherman @matratype I'll add these pictorials from painted shopfronts in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam.
Some of the full fascias are on this page: https://bl.ag/painted-signs-in-vietnam/
#signpainting #machinery #pictorial #illustration #shopfront #Vietnam #MekongDelta
@blag @nicksherman ๐คฉ
A couple of months ago there was a small exhibition in Delhi that put together hand painted signs from India and the Dominican Republic, and showcased illustrations for lots of different product types.
It has made me quite curious to see where else in the world these sort of signs make an appearance, and so Iโm especially delighted to see the Vietnam photographs. Thanks Sam!
@matratype @nicksherman I have some spreads in my book, Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie, that are very similar to those arrays.
(Kratie is a provincial capital in north-east Cambodia, located on the Mekong river.)
There is a free download of the ebook available here: https://ghostsigns.co.uk/kratie. That page also has a Khmer translation of the full text.
#kratie #cambodia #signs #signpainting #signwriting #pictorial #illustration
Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie by Sam Roberts documents the painted signs in a small town in Cambodia, including the history of the signs and the craft itself.
Pooja Saxena
Nick Sherman
Sam at BLAG