India Street Lettering zines celebrate the diversity of letterforms on signages in India’s streets. Like turns of a kaleidoscope, they illuminate patterns — established and unexpected — to expand our understanding of typographic forms and styles, and conventions for their use.

 
 
 

For the last decade, I’ve been working slowly and steadily to create a visual record of public lettering in the country over on India Street Lettering. This summer, I’m taking the plunge to turn my typographic discoveries and theses into honest-to-God printed matter: pint-sized, self-published zines that each centre on a tiny sliver of public lettering in India, catalysed by a medley of influences such as material, script, location, function and historical context.

I hope you’ll pick up a copy for yourself, or for a friend who loves typography. Your support will mean the world to me.

 
 

№1 Azulejos of Panjim, Goa

Signages on hand-painted, glazed tiles abound in the streets of Panjim as a striking visual reminder of the lasting Portuguese influence in India’s smallest state.

 
 

№2 Mosaic Letters in Devanagari & Latin

Mosaic signs offer up an excellent opportunity to study how the vastly different letterforms of Devanagari and Latin scripts adapt to a limiting medium.

 
 

№3 Tiled Wayfinding in New Delhi

An unexpected sighting of multi-script, monospaced letterforms in the wild in the form of fast-disappearing wayfinding signs in New Delhi.