Letters of Rajasthan, India: Mister Praveen of Jodhpur and his Gemini Art crew
While reading this article listen to Seema Mishra, recommended by my friend Vishnu Dutt Purohit
At the turn of 2017, I visited a few cities in the north-west of India with my partner Nadia Filipa: Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Delhi, Amritsar, Agra. In Jodhpur, the blue city of Rajasthan, something of great importance for me happened: I met up with my first Indian signpainter.
Traveling in India is a type designer’s dream. More than anywhere else I have been, scores of handpainted signs surround you as you explore a new city. Jodhpur is no exception. The city is guarded at North by the massive Mehrangarh Fort and by the gracious Jaswant Thada. At their feet are the narrow alleys of the old city, with the characteristic blue houses which gave it its nickname. Walking further south, one enters a vibrant Rajasthani city, with its colours, sounds and letters.
Many Indian signpainters have the wonderful habit of signing their work, usually at the bottom-right of the piece. By my second and last day in Jodhpur, I had noticed a signature popular in the area where we had accommodation, just a few blocks south-east of the Sardar Market. I started inquiring among the local shop owners about the identity of this signpainter. I was told he was called Gemini Art (technically spelled as Gemini Rt, like my friend Tanya George pointed out to me: a Latin R has made its way in the signature, written as जैमिनी Rट rather than जैमिनी आर्ट). To find him, I was told, I should proceed west — Sardar Market and its clock tower at my back.
As I walked west on Lakhara Bazar Road and then turned right into Fateh Pol road, I came across more and more of Gemini Art’s work. A group of elders playing cards on the sidewalk referred me to the shop of Vishnu Dutt Purohit, a trader of fabrics. He invited us to sit in and offered to help us find the signpainter, a friend of his. He showed that hospitality typical of places where there is still a strong sense of the neighborhood. He told me that behind the Gemini Art’s signature was a man called Praveen. He used to operate in the neighborhood, but had now relocated to a new area. In a few minutes a kid came in running, a phone number written on the palm of his hand. Shortly after, we had the new address of our signpainter.
It took the tuc tuc a long time to get us to the PCG Complex, the new headquarters of Gemini arts, because of the evening traffic in the old narrow streets of central Jodhpur. When we finally got there, our man was standing on the platform at the first floor of a staircase overlooking the street.
Praveen Bohra is in his 60ies. He is not a tall man, but he stands in an almost purposefully straight posture. He has the wide-open, fast-moving eyes of the eccentric, but also the composure of the seasoned family man. The designer traits: the genius of the artist, the common sense of the artisan.
Praveen doesn’t speak a word of English, but luckily his neighbor Manish Kumar Sharma, an architect and interior designer, intercedes as interpreter. Manish is one more fine example of hospitality. I explain who I am and what I do for a living, and why I am interested in our man. I show our hosts some of the pictures I had taken of Gemini Art’s signs. A sparkle of pride appears in Praveen’s eyes at each new picture. He seems to enjoy this unexpected interest from the exotic foreigner. You can sense a trace of excitement under the thick skin of the seasoned professional. Which in turn brings a sparkle of pride in my own eyes.
Manish tells me that Praveen is self taught, and has been painting signs since he was a kid. At some point he has diversified his business due to the declining fortunes of signpainting, and now makes digital graphics too. Praveen takes me to a tiny office on the same floor, where are a computer and an offset printing machine. There, he surprises me with a my staff in English, introducing me to three younger men.
We take a sit in Manish’s architecture studio — whose sign also bears the signature of Gemini Art. I initially intended to commission our man to paint a lettering or two on portable-size plates. But paint takes a long time to dry in winter, and in three hours our night bus for Jaipur departs. Praveen doesn’t lose his composure, and picks up pencil and paper. He draws two pieces of lettering for us, both reading Riccardo and Nadia, transliterated into Hindi via the Devanagari script.
As Praveen sketches, I keep conversing with our host Manish. I ask him questions about his work. Praveen usually receives a very high-level brief from the client, then he works according to his own inspiration and picks himself the letter style and colours to be used for that one specific job. When a customer hires Gemini Art, he or she puts his trust in him, knowing that an expert is on the case.
I ask him for 3D letters, and he nods with the confidence of one who has seen many. He first quickly hints with the pencil at the bounding box of the wordmarks, to get the proportions right. Then he proceeds steadily to sketching the outlines. Finally he applies some shadowing. You can tell he is having fun drawing, as Manish and I talk about him looking over his shoulder. When he needs to contribute to the conversation, Praveen does so without ever casting his eyes from the paper nor stopping his pencil.
In our sleepers compartment of the Jodhpur-Jaipur bus that night, I couldn’t quite sleep. I was excited for the evening encounter, and couldn’t help thinking of a way to give something back to Praveen. I considered drawing some pieces of lettering for him myself, using pencil and paper. But then I had my night epiphany and realized that I should do what I like the most doing and do best: translate his letters into the digital medium, and share the result with him. Here is my little gift for Praveen.
For a collection of the letters I photographed in Jodhpur, including those of Gemini Art, see this Flickr album.
Below is a map of the area of Lakhra Bazar Rd, central Jodhpur, where several signs by Gemini Art can be found.
