A new book on Mumbai’s signage tells the story of a city through its fonts
Every space in a city as dense as Bombay is marked; every property has a board to it. Once you get tuned to looking, you can tell the story of a city through its signboards,” says 33-year-old Vishal Rawlley, photographer and writer who has taken over 1,500 pictures of Mumbai signage. From cinema hall poster fonts to roadside signs, hand-painted typography on tailor and barber shops to number plate and sticker art, Mumbai gave Rawlley a lot to chew on. In a couple of months, Rawlley’s collection of photographs, taken over a period of three years, will be published by Chennai-based publishing house, Blaft, in a book titled

Typocity. Detailed captions with each photograph tell the story of a city in flux, as seen through typos and typography. “I can’t and don’t propose to document every amazing sign that exists in Bombay. I am looking at signage that has value to us from the point of view of design and social history.”
Rawlley came to Mumbai when he was 19, dropped out of college and did a diploma in film and video production. That was 1995, when he discovered his love for graphic design and the city. “I was discovering Bombay as a city and found it fascinating. There was so much informal design practice everywhere from taxi stickers and hoardings to the shops’ signboards. It was very fascinating. You can almost trace the history if you start following and documenting them,” he says. So he picked up his camera, a manual SLR, and walked around the city-by-the-sea taking pictures.

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