The Indian Half Font
They typographic style in Pondicherry – half and half.
I was recently in South India, briefly. One thing I noticed (after it was pointed out) was the dominance of a particular font, or typographic style moreso. On almost every wall or poster (often above trash or urine) they’d be using the same type of lettering. Top half one color, bottom half another – often with a white stripe through the middle. I kinda like it. It’s an interesting and striking style, and surprisingly ubiquitous.
Pondicherry bike shop.
Here it is at a Pondicherry winkle, or bike shop.
Jayalalithaa poster.
And here it is on a wall painting for Tamil politician Jayalalithaa. This is a common variant, with a white stripe through the middle. Other variants have a wavy or jagged white stripe, often with a neon green/yellow highlighter color surrounding and defining the whole thing. It’s an interesting little cultural trope.
Posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 in India, Photography.
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I remember this style being popular with Sinhalese and Tamil movie posters in SL — back in the two-colour print days.
The white color script may have its origins in stencil based spray painting, where you need the whole stencil to be connected to the rest using small lines, lines that end up the same color as the unpainted paper.
Ah, that stencil thing makes sense