The June issue of Wallpaper* is all about India! Wallpaper* shifted to Delhi and Mumbai for a while to seek out our coolest and most stylish stuff. Wallpaper* describes India as “the most eye-popping, synapse-snapping, pulse-pushing place on the planet”. Can’t wait to see the issue! Until it hits the shelves you can check out the Reborn in India page where news and guest blogs will be added over the next month.
Hooray for our friend Hanif who is documenting the typefaces of road side painters across India, digitizing it and archiving it for future generations. It will even be exhibited in Centre Pompidou in Paris this summer! Way to go captain!
HandpaintedType is a project that is dedicated to preserving the typographic practice of street painters around India. These painters, with the advent of local DTP (desktop Publishers) shops, are rapidly going out of business and shops switching to the quicker, cheaper but uglier vinyls. Many painters have given up their practice altogether.
HandpaintedType is a collaborative project. So if you'd like to contribute or collaborate, get in touch with them!
One of many awesome examples from HandpaintedType:
Painter Umesh - Dhoraji / Rajkot, Gujarat
Painter Umesh 27, is not a street painter but he used to be one. Umesh earlier ran a painting shop in Dhoraji, Gujarat with his partner Mayank. After having completed his education with a Fine Arts degree from the famed M.S University in Baroda, Gujarat, he joined the advertising industry. Currently he works as an art director in the Gurgaon office of Publicis. His partner Mayank still runs the painting shop.
Go to D'source to learn the nitty-gritty about each design. Love the simplicity of the milk drop, Punjab National Bank and the SBI.
Compiled by: Professor Ravi Poovaiah and Ph. D student Nanki Nath at IDC, IIT Bombay
