Now studios are reduced to 1 or 2 people and they struggle to compete with the cheap prices and lightning fast turn around of cheap computer graphics and digital flex vinyl printing.
”We don’t use our brains. We don’t have time to use our brains”.
This video really captures the conflict of the past and present.
Kureshi has commissioned street painters to paint typefaces to document and preserve the tradition, beginning with Roman typefaces and extending to include the local languages of each painter.
The typefaces use layers to build complexity and depth of style, sometimes as many as 9 layers – rather than weights as in roman typefaces. And the more color there, the better it is. Overall the typefaces have a real unique Indian character.
Today the few practitioners left always attract a crowd of onlookers while working on a project, whilst no matter how well it is done, no one pays attention to the digital prints.
To learn more about the ongoing project or support the painters by purchasing one of digitized typefaces visit handpaintedtype.com (50% each sale goes to the painter).
Hanif Kureshi
Text: Sarah Lincoln
