India Street Lettering

For over a decade, Pooja Saxena has meticulously documented, organised and geo-tagged public lettering from the cities and towns of India to create a photographic archive of this oft-ignored aspect of our shared visual culture.

EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE →

Azulejos — Remnants of Goa’s Portuguese heritage, azulejos are glazed tiles that appear as canvases for signage in the lanes of Panjim.

Nishatganj Cemetery — Travel back in time with gravestone lettering spanning over a century from Lucknow’s Nishatganj Cemetry.

Food Carts — A collection of food carts signs from several cities, including Bangalore, Udaipur and Ahmedabad.

Connaught Place, New Delhi — Take a journey through this bustling marketplace to unearth how India’s colonial past and multilingual present have influenced the letterforms you see around.

Indiranagar and around, Bangalore — Explore this fast-changing neighbourhood through the lens of typography to see how commercial and residential establishments use letters to carve out their identities.

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 the conventions for their use.

This project shines a spotlight on the ingenious letter designs of local sign-makers in India, by drawing letters and numerals based on signs seen in the wild.