Varanasi: The department of Applied Arts, Faculty of Visual Arts at BHU on Wednesday organised ‘TypoPicnic’, a street-based typography workshop under its ongoing Typoyatra calligraphy and type design series.Around 50 students participated in a three-hour guided walk from Godowlia Crossing through Stitch Market to Dashashwamedh area, observing the vernacular typography of the city’s busy marketplaces.Mentored by Abhishek Vardhan Singh and led by Prof Manish Arora, the session encouraged students to study hand-painted signboards, mixed-script signage and everyday lettering practices. They analysed features such as distorted letterforms, shifting typographic hierarchy and the coexistence of Devanagari and Latin scripts.The bilingual Sanskrit-English signage at Ekam Kashi was examined as a rare example of deliberate typographic design within a vernacular setting.The workshop focused on understanding typography through construction logic, materials, surface treatments, spatial arrangement and functional context, highlighting the hybrid nature of India’s visual language.Designed as a hands-on learning experience, the exercise aimed to connect technical training with real-world observation, helping students interpret everyday visual culture more critically.
