Local vendors get a designer identity
SPECIAL TOUCH A group of graphic designers has given a brand makeover to small businesses to show what good design can do for them – and Delhi’s streets
NEW DELHI : Ever thought of your neighbourhood vegetable vendor or the tea seller near your office as a business brand? Perhaps not. But here is a group of graphic designers that wants to change the face your neighbourhood vendor – the paan-seller, sabjiwalla, chaiwalla, kirana store, electrician, dhaba. They believe rebranding these small businesses – which dot the streets of Delhi without a face and a name – through good design, will not just lend them an identity but also boost their sales and, most importantly, will help add a dash of colour and creativity to the city’s streets.
“Small roadside businesses have not had access to good design. The idea is to rebrand these small businesses and reimagining our streets,” says Kunel Gaur, a well-known designer and founder of Indianama, a visual communication platform, which has undertaken a project – Indianama 2018: The Street Hustle — to rebrand these small establishments. “I was inspired by the beautiful and quirky store signage in New York’s East Village, which have lent such a quaint character to the neighbourhood. We wanted to know what design can do for these establishments and our streets.”
So, three months ago, the Indianama team hit the streets looking for streetside businesses that were ready to be part of the project. They zeroed in on about 90 establishments in places such as Chandni Chowk, Chawri Bazar, Daryaganj, Karol Bagh, Lado Sarai, Mehrauli, and Saidulajab. “Not everyone we talked to came on board. Many left midway, but eventually 71 remained and they were paired with 71 designers across India. They designed not just their front signage but posters, murals, visiting cards, bill books, menus and other branding material,” Gaur says.
The result was interesting. The designs they produced are inspired by pop culture, street iconography, religious imagery, vintage graphics and pop art. Abhishek Choudhury, a Delhi-based designer who developed a design system for a ‘vaishno dhaba’, says the challenge for him was to make the eatery stand out in its crowded, messy surrounding. The nondescript street dhaba in a narrow lane three months back today boasts a whole new look.
The logo has the photo of Chalittar Mukhiya, the owner, who started the dhaba in the 1990s.the inside walls have stencil art with photos of his father and him as a young a man selling food on a cart; a chalkboard as a menu. “I wanted a classy and nostalgia-driven design, inspired by the Indian Coffee House aesthetic. But at the same time, I had to ensure the design is functional for him and his clients,” Choudhury says.
Similarly, many shops—a vegetable hawker, a kirana Store, an egg-seller– in Sat Nagar in Karol Bagh have new signage created for them as part of the project. Kamal Store, a 50-year-old kirana store, now has a beautifully designed signage -- a logo placed alongside distinct artistic shapes of representative objects it sells. Kamal Kant, the store owner, says the new signage is attracting attention. “I am not sure if it is going to help boost my business, but it has given the store a brand identity,” Kant says.
A few shops away stands Narain Sabjiwala, which has a got signage for the first time -- a simple design that has Narain written on a brinjal as a logo alongside other colourful vegetables. “During my conversations with the vegetable vendor, I realised that coriander and chili is demanded by his every customer, playing an important part in his business. I highlighted them in the background to show how they go with everything,” says Aanchal Baranwal, a Delhibased multidisciplinary designer who has done branding for this vendor.
Designers say they seek to understand the local context, the nature of a business, its specialties, its legacy and the personalities of the owners to come up with identity systems for these streetside establishments. Ajinkya Bane, a Mumbai-based designer, who has done branding for the Walled City’s Hakeem Chhote Lal Sri Ram Jain, says he did a lot of research on the establishment before developing a design system for it. “I did not want too much styling and came up with a raw design keeping in mind the essence of ayurveda and the clientele of the establishment, which is more than 150 years old. Bane believes that Delhi’s streets are much more fascinating than Mumbai’s. “They provide the right cultural context and atmosphere to experiment with raw designs. In Mumbai, people prefer sleeker, contemporary designs,” he says.
Unlike their corporate clients, the designers say the owners of these establishments allowed them full freedom to come with the designs of their choice, barring few small requests such as use of certain colours and incorporating a few photographs of either themselves or their family.
Goa-based Praveen Yaramilli has developed a design identity for a hole-inthe-wall tea stall in Chawari Bazaar using architectural elements from surrounding landmarks such as Jama Masjid and Red Fort. The shop signage has been done in saturated tones of blues, yellows and reds. “The design has many floral motifs meant to stimulate a feeling of freshness that a cup of tea evokes. The project will help democratise design and make these small businesses aspire for higher aesthetics,” says Yaramilli.
Some of these designers found working with these street-side establishments quite a challenge. “I think we designers work in our own bubble, have our own ways of seeing the world, which is very elitist. But this was one branding project where I had to keep the sensibilities of these roadside business owners and their clients in mind. I tried my best to create a design that is unpretentious and elegant at the same time,” says Choudhury. “The owner had no brief for me. So I paid him several visits, had lunch at his dabha several times to understand how his business works.”
Indianama has roped in street painters to hand-paint some of the signage developed by graphic designers. One of them is Hoshiar Singh, 66, who sees an opportunity for the revival of his form of art through this project. “We lost our business about 15 years back when digitally-printed vinyl signage became popular. People do not understand vinyl boards are a cheap but ugly signage option,” says Singh.
Yaramilli believes the demise of the street painters has ruined the aesthetics of the roads. “If all shopkeepers adopted good design together in a particular neighbourhood, it can really tackle ‘visual pollution’ that plagues our streets,” says Baranwal.