This mural celebrating Rabindranath Tagore on the wall of the Bengalee Association’s building in Bangalore is a treat, especially for its cursive Bangla letterforms.

📍 Ulsoor, Bangalore (Karnataka)
📅 September 2019
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/bengalee-association/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Bangla #Bangalore

I have always done a poor job of documenting street lettering in Delhi, even though I have spent large parts of life in and around the city. I guess its what we call घर की मुर्गी दाल बराबर in Hindi 😜

This summer, I started to make some amends over on https://indiastreetlettering.com/. Head there to see the latest photographs 📸 from Delhi.

#IndiaStreetLettering #Delhi

It wouldn’t be a type walk https://bangaloreinternationalcentre.org/event/men-of-faith-letters-of-commerce/ if I didn’t notice a sign for the first time while showing folks around a neighbourhood where I’ve rambled so much.

Hidden in an alley off MG Road is this beautiful sign. It has sent me down a rabbit hole trying to learn more about Yusuf Sait, who was I believe was the royal tailor to the erstwhile Maharaja of Mysuru.

📍 MG Road, Bangalore (Karnataka)
📅 June 2023
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/gulzaray-yoosoofi/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Nastaliq #Latin #Bangalore

I’ve been fascinated by the Modi Flour Mills building and the letters on its façade for as long as I can remember. Growing up, it was the location for many a detective story I concocted.

I finally got some images of its signs last week. Must go back for more on a sunnier day, but until then, please enjoy these larger than life wood letters in Devanagari and Latin — pigeons for scale 🤭

📍 Okhla, Delhi
📅 August 2023
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/tag/modi-flour-mills/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Devanagari #Latin #Delhi

I am always drawn to signs that turn up on homes, like this one warning visitors and burglars of the resident canine. The illustration of the agitated dog and the flamboyant “W” are such nice touches.

📍 Defence Colony, Bangalore (Karnataka)
📅 February 2016
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/beware-of-dogs/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Kannada #Latin #Bangalore

Gotta love the sign for a century and a half old temple, which features three scripts — Devanagari, Latin and Nastaliq — and a suggestion, perhaps, of a more syncretic time.

I don’t think I recall the word “pandit” being abbreviated with a raised “T” ever before.

📍 Kankhal, Haridwar (Uttarakhand)
📅 February 2023
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/temple-of-ganga-and-bhagirath/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Devanagari #Nastaliq #Latin #Haridwar

I’ve had a bit of time on my hands these past few days, and that means there are about ✨ FIFTY ✨ new photographs up on https://indiastreetlettering.com/, complete with tags 🏷️ and locations 🗺️

The photographs are from four cities — Delhi, Haridwar, Chennai and Bangalore — and show signs in an equal number of scripts — Devanagari, Tamil, Kannada and Latin.

#IndiaStreetLettering

When I visited Chennai five years ago, I spent a morning photographing signs for hardware stores in George Town. Among them was this one for Quality Machine Tools, which featured the most delicious, high-contrast Tamil lettering.

📍 George Town, Chennai
📅 March 2018
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/quality-machine-tools/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Tamil #Chennai #Madras

These two signs for the same building are in gold, on ground-level, and most importantly, completely and utterly dismissive of visually matching Devanagari and Latin scripts. I wrote a little bit about them in my newsletter https://mailchi.mp/05e0957f4a95/typographic-eye3-cp-type-tour a few months ago.

📍 Connaught Place, Delhi
📅 November 2019
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/indra-palace/ + https://indiastreetlettering.com/indra-palace-2/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Devanagari #Latin #Delhi

That loopy cursive has my heart!

📍 Car Street, Bangalore (Karnataka)
📅 August 2016
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/champaka-distributors/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Bangalore #Kannada #Handpainted

Go for the birds, stay for the hand-painted letters! If I was responsible for getting people to Okhla Bird Sanctuary, that’s what I’d be telling them.

Take this welcome sign for instance, well-intentioned but lovingly crooked. The ध in the द्ध conjunct is beyond tiny and my favourite bit: the shrike has pushed the ै matra off the stem in the है.

📍 Okhla Bird Sanctuary, Noida (Uttar Pradesh)
📅 February 2022
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/okhla-bird-sanctuary/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Noida #Handpainted #OkhlaBirdSanctuary

On every trip to Ahmedabad, I am struck by how easily the Gujarati script is moulded into to geometric forms, sometimes abstract enough to stump me and my novice reading skills. Last time around, I noticed this sign for a cycle repair shop that I loved: its compact shapes, gently curved strokes and undulating baseline.

📍 Shahpur, Ahmedabad (Gujarat)
📅 December 2018
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/naveen-repairing-centre/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Ahmedabad #Gujarati #Handpainted

This hand-painted sign is so clever to use the eyes usually associated with the goddess Kali to create the chandra bindu in the word माँ (Hindi for mother). The flourishes are not a bad touch either.

📍 Swaroop Nagar, Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh)
📅 January 2019
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/maa/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Devanagari #Kanpur

An unexpected bit of Cyrillic in the heart of Delhi on this bilingual plaque marking the statue of Russian poet, Aleksandr Pushkin. Over the years, the bloated Devanagari श in this sign has gone from pet peeve to something I have a soft spot for.

📍 Mandi House, Delhi
📅 November 2018
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/alekasandr-pushkins-statue/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Cyrillic #Devanagari #Delhi

One of the things I miss about living in Bangalore is the old neon signs on MG Road, many decrepit now. This one is a favourite: from the swash of the “V” to pairing the narrow script with the squarish sans, and the ampersand to the subtly similar “k” in both styles.

📍 MG Road, Bangalore (Karnataka)
📅 October 2019
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/vijayalakshmi-silks-sarees/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Neon #Bangalore

An Art Deco postcard from Mumbai 💌

📍 Oval Maidan, Mumbai (Maharashtra)
📅 May 2016
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/queens-court/

#IndiaStreetLettering #ArtDeco #Mumbai

Nastaliq, Devanagari and Latin come together on this sign for a traditional medicine centre, where space is expertly carved out for each script without cramping their styles.

📍 Shastri Market, Amritsar (Punjab)
📅 December 2017
🔗 https://indiastreetlettering.com/house-of-surgery/

#IndiaStreetLettering #Devanagari #Nastaliq #Amritsar

This year has been a reminder to tend to the little spaces on the internet I call my own with more care, starting with https://indiastreetlettering.com/.

I set up this website years ago to collect photographs I take of street lettering around the country, but I’ve been terrible at keeping it up-to-date. That changes now. And if I can keep myself motivated, I’ll share a picture from it here every week 🤞🏼

#IndiaStreetLettering