India Street Lettering — a pioneering book that shines a spotlight on the country’s urban letterforms, and the stories behind them.
Photography × research & Writing × Book Design × Lettering
In 2026, Blaft Publications released my first book, India Street Lettering: A Journey Through Typographic Craft & Culture. Drawing from a decade of documentation and research (which is available online as a living archive of the same name), the book is a showcase of the country’s lively public lettering landscape, and an emphatic call to give this artistry the place it deserves in the design canon. It is divided into five chapters that scrutinise how signs are imagined — on shops, restaurants, cinemas, banks, post offices, even homes — and the role that typography and cultural history play in their design. Together, the chapters feature over 300 photographs from 17 cities and in 13 scripts, painting a vivid picture of urban neighbourhoods in India. Accompanying this wide ranging collection are stories of local signmakers, which give a rare peek into their design process, and how they view their vocation in a time of rapid technological change. The book also includes four itineraries for the intrepid typographic traveller: guides for exploring the lettering gems of Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi, and Mumbai.
In addition to being author and photographer, I also designed the book, including custom lettering the cover and chapter titles based on a sign on a shop near Mapusa Municipal Market in Goa.
India Street Lettering: A Journey Through Typographic Craft & Culture was included in The Nod’s list of most exciting art books of 2026, and author Robin Sloan described the volume as “[an] incandescent compendium [that] is a required purchase for anyone interested in typography, graphic design, and/or urban space.”
Project photography by Harshay Jha.
