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.

 
 
 

Based on the visual record of public signage in the country that is housed under India Street Lettering, the theme of each zine is catalysed by a medley of influences such as material, script, location, function and historical context. Since 2023, two batches have been published: the first focused on the use of tiles in street lettering, and the second features cinema signs from Lucknow, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

India Street Lettering zines have been featured in BLAG, the world’s only magazine dedicated to sign painting, Homegrown, and The New Indian Express; exhibited at Opn Art House by Gaysi, the City Scripts 2024 festival by Indian Institute for Human Settlements, and as part of Paper and Play by Pulp Society; and accepted into the collections of the Letterform Archive and the Snap, Snap, Sizzle Library at the University of Arkansas’ School of Art’s graphic design program.

 
 

№ 6 Cinemas of Kolkata

Kolkata holds a special place in India’s film history — the first dedicated cinema in the country was built here. Even though that has been long-demolished, there are still many cinemas here whose signage can whet your typographic appetite.

 
 

№ 5 Cinemas of Hyderbad

Home to the Telugu film industry, Hyderabad still boasts of several surviving single-screen cinemas, each with its own unique sign, often in rendered neon. Explore them in this zine.

 
 

№ 4 Cinemas of Lucknow

Featuring signs in Latin and Devanagari, this set features everything from a cinema that goes by a different name than its architectural sign to a restored Art Deco gem with an unexpected sign.

 
 

№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.

 
 

№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.

 
 
 

№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.