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Indian Sign Painting: A typeface designer's take on the craft

Through her India Street Lettering project, Pooja Saxena re-examines the craft and its clichés.

Get the Book It was not long after I began documenting street lettering in India that I became jaded by its singular perception — one that focused solely on sign painting and was outrightly colourful and flamboyant — that had taken hold of public imagination. Pooja Saxena’s India Street Lettering initiative has resulted in an extensive online archive and a series of publications profiling different letterforms and the mediums in which they’re found.While I had never doubted the immense skill of sign painters, it took coming back to their work with new perspectives and a curiosity to see beyond the surface. It is not uncommon for sign painters to be employed by agents of large corporations, Indian and international, painting their logos on walls over and over again, but it is usually when they produce work for their communities and local businesses that they have the opportunity to flex their creative muscles.

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