Typoauto Graphics
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Owners name - S MANIGANDAN (written and pronounced in Tamil), S MANIKANDAN (if written in English), P. VEERASAMY (written and pronounced in Tamil), P. VERRASWAMY (if written in English) - Family naming – an ancient tradition followed to name products, vehicles, shops etc. in India.
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Instruction - Don’t take over the turnings (instructional sign), Owner’s name - V. PARIMALA or LHA (in Tamil there are three kinds of lha).
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Owners’ name - M. SARAVANAN (Family naming), K.V. MUGUNTHAN or KU (support for DMK party – political context).
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Owner’s name - ASHWIN (DMK flag embeded in the letters - Political context).
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Shri Ayyanar Thunai (thunai means blessing) - AYANNAR – small Gods (village God) – in a way protector of the image – like we have “Veerabhadra” in North - “I am there for you” (punch line – following the symbolic image of Lord Karthikeya).
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Random naming – KARTHIK (TH – Tamil letter).
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Meena – a famous name of Tamil actress - Interesting designerly identity:(a) Letterforms traced with a pencil from a stencil design.(b) Colourful stripes were then cut and arranged in diagonal orientation to fill the letterforms.(c) The colourful theme relates with the film celebrity status of cinema. (d) Also, the centered perspective effect added to the typography creates a drama and extravagance visually depicted in many Film titles displayed on posters, billboards and title sequences.
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Om Shakti (religious context – owner of the autorick is Siva’s devotee).
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Shri Bhavani Amman (Amman means Mother Godddess – like Bhavani mata in North).
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MAYA (letter M – Tamil and English letters combined – unique ligature formation). Symbol of crown probably to signify exclusivity, superiority. This trend of placement of a crown on a single letter is visible on many Local shop signs of Chennai.
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Religious naming (cultural context) - N. Dhanalakshmi (image too symbolizes the context). The trend of adorning new vehicles, doors in houses with religious symbols, images and names has been a tradition of restoring faith and religious beliefs in India.
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Devi KARUMARIAMMAN (Territorial – Village God) or a kind of “Kul-Devataa”) (Thunai – means ‘with you’ in English – Blessings from the Goddess).
Vehicular Graphics in India are the epitome of visual vibrance and celebration of immense variety of typographic styles. They make cars, trucks, taxis and auto-rickshaws ubiquitous carriers of India’s unique local themes. It’s the graphics through Type styles that provide the roads of Chennai with a dash of visual splendor and individualistic ephemera. Therefore, we have taken the creative freedom to call them TypoAuto Graphics.
The displayed examples depict various kinds of Sticker Art that explore different typographic styles, colours, forms and expressions of Tamil language in the information displays on the autoricks of Chennai. These stickers exhibit letterforms in stripes, blocks, multiple colours, letterforms juxtaposed with various political, religious and personalized symbols. These vivid coloured sticker letters are available as simple forms or are sometimes hand-cut from reflective adhesive material (generally used material being Radium Vinyl, since it reflects the light. The themes presented are mostly names of the autorick owner, Gods and Goddesses, politicians, film stars etc. The most inviting aspect of Typography here are the expressive letterforms, coloured dimensional stripes and geometric patterns endowing the letters with curious dimensionality and illusion.
Meena – a famous name of Tamil actress - Interesting designerly identity:(a) Letterforms traced with a pencil from a stencil design.(b) Colourful stripes were then cut and arranged in diagonal orientation to fill the letterforms.(c) The colourful theme relates with the film celebrity status of cinema. (d) Also, the centered perspective effect added to the typography creates a drama and extravagance visually depicted in many Film titles displayed on posters, billboards and title sequences.
