India Street Lettering: A Journey Through Typographic Craft and Culture

Drawing from a decade of documentation and research, India Street Lettering: A Journey Through Typographic Craft & Culture 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. The book 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. Finally, the book includes four itineraries for the intrepid typographic traveller: guides for exploring the lettering gems of Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi, and Mumbai.