Handmade Balinese typography

27 Sep 2006 Category: Features, Typography, Worldwide

On a little excursion to Bali, I came across some lovely colorful typography. Pretty much all signs on the side of the road, in temples, restaurants or shops are still hand-painted, carved or “made” in some other form. A truly refreshing sight for us computer-output-people who too often forget that once there was a skillful hand swinging the brush and painting letters…

Written by Uleshka

I spent way too little time on this dream-island to chat to the locals and find out about all things Ping: Who makes those signs? Where? Since when? Who teaches kalligraphy? Why these color combinations?…

Sorry! Basically what you see here is what you get!

However - I can tell you what it was all like! Sit back, relax and imagine…

Sweet and moisty scents of coconuts, spices, sea and sun are in the air while your dusty feet flip-flop along the side of the road. Spotted that good sign?!

And another one over here and…

Wait a second! Why do all of them have these colorful drop shaddows? I mean - I like it but doesn’t that have a little bit of a Hawaiian feel to it? Must be the strong sun and varicolored fruits they have in common…

I also very much like those open spaces everywhere… well! This one has been open for a bit too long I’m afraid!

The balance of the BEAUTY SALON letters is a bit odd - but somehow very charming! The letters of the silver shop on the following left could almost pass as printed, but the slight differences of the two G’s blurt out the truth.

The Ganeça sign on the right has some old sanskrit letters in Malayalam style revealing Bali’s original Hindu alphabet.

More sanskrit details to gaze at above, details on shopping windows below.

A rather playful typography for something as official as this road sign to come pointing the way to a temple…

On the contrary a very straight font with a fearsome illustration on red:

If you managed to escape this bull, try relaxing at one of the countless hotels, inns and spas along every beautiful beach. I fell in love with these beautiful “hats” they put on each “important looking” sign, which remind of pagoda at Balinese temples.

Last but not least - if you feel like taking a rest - follow those signs:

This is what you might get:

I hope you enjoyed our short trip!

And whizzzzzzzzz - back in front of your computer ;-)

60 Comments

1. typography on the streets are so much refreshing than printed stuff, out there are words full of singular meanings that are lost in printed words. don’t you think?

   Posted by: Flavio on September 27th, 2006 at 10:26 pm

2. Hello!

   “Wartel” are telephone cafes, often with internet facilities as well.

   The scary red bull is the logo for the Democratic Party.

   Also, I had those fresh coconut juice once and the acidity triggered my appendix. It was going to blow in 1/2 an hour if I didn’t get it operated. A warning to you all!

   Bali and Indonesia rock!

   Posted by: Jo on September 27th, 2006 at 10:35 pm

3. oops for the political poster! I actually thought it was some kind of spicy snack… thanks, Jo!

   Posted by: Uleshka on September 27th, 2006 at 10:47 pm

4. The Black bull on the red door is one of Indonesia Political Party. The Party when Megawati Soekarno Putri won the presidential title.

   Uleshka you must see the typography from Indonesian truck, they are all great.

   I think, the person who responsible for that font are never learning Typography formaly.

   Love the story, and as Jo said.
   Indonesia Rock! :)

   Posted by: kuswanto on September 27th, 2006 at 11:22 pm

5. Salute, i thought people going there is to amdmire the sunshine and lovely famous beach. BUt you guys are so artistic and sensitive to the typography surrounding you.. flankily speaking, pretty cool!!!i will open my eye wide and my mind too!! indonesia rock!

   Posted by: munchy on September 28th, 2006 at 2:18 am

6. eoooooo! están en la misma playa munchy.

   Posted by: flavio on September 28th, 2006 at 3:59 am

7. Exit sign is the best thing you’ve found….i love that they went through the trouble of making it have serifs

   Posted by: allbriton on September 28th, 2006 at 5:22 am

8. You make some improvement to the photography? The color is shocking! Especially the first four…
   Love from Argentina!

   Posted by: Sergio on September 28th, 2006 at 10:12 am

9. All I can say is that sometimes, ugly is beautiful.

   Posted by: weekeat on September 28th, 2006 at 2:12 pm

10. I love HAND painted letterings and illustrations.
    Great use of shadows and colors too. FULL OF RESPECT FOR THEM! ;-)

    Posted by: N I C O on September 28th, 2006 at 9:38 pm

11. Yes! I wish the whole world was hand-painted. Computer-made signage is so boring and soul-less! BTW, I must recommend a really good book about signs in Bali, called “BALI. JUNGLE OF SIGNS” by DMatto. It contains hundreds more photos like these, plus a lot of background info.

    Posted by: Rob on September 29th, 2006 at 12:32 pm

12. [...] Pingmag has yet another interesting article, this time about the hand drawn typography that can be found on signage in Bali. I’ve always found amateur or non-designer representations of type to be quite fascinating. [...]

    Posted by: the adventures of teapot the cat » Hand drawn Balinese Typography on September 30th, 2006 at 6:06 am

13. well.. maybe you can try Jogja… there you can find more those handmade typography… Not only jogja but in indonesia there are a lot of handmade typo everywhere… they are looking for low cost signs for their business…

    Instead of making a print for a movie posters.. sometimes.. they are re-draw the movie posters! And the result is very similar to the real movie posters complete with the typo and credits typo..! Wicked Sick!

    Posted by: randy on October 4th, 2006 at 4:10 am

14. [...] A short series of photos showing some nice hand made signs and inventive type. [...]

    Posted by: Notes | Blog Archive » Hand Painted Signs from Bali on October 6th, 2006 at 10:51 am

15. hello there, even our people seem doesn’t appreciate much about that, hehehe.

    Yeah, like kuswanto said, you should see graphic behind indonesian trucks, they’re so funny when you know what it is.

    great article Uleshka :-)

    Posted by: sun. on October 6th, 2006 at 9:06 pm

16. hi uleshka, “wartel” is the abbreviation for “warung telpon” -> phone shop where you can phone international relatively cheap. greetings and - say hello to indonesia! bye, leonie

    Posted by: Anonymous on January 13th, 2007 at 2:51 am

17. Well as speikerman says..handwritten fonts are always the most beautiful ones…as it got rhythm, contrast, and personality which most classic legible fonts do lack

    Posted by: arnab on August 3rd, 2007 at 12:12 am

18. [...] Enlace: PingMag/Handmade Balinese typography. [...]

    Posted by: RUDEWORKS on October 6th, 2007 at 9:49 pm

19. Yeah, as the matter of fact Bali is great in art besides typography shown above. They are more into traditional way of painting. Everything is in hand-made. Love for their spirit of believing in human ability more than computer aid.
    Btw, just back from Bali. It rocks!!!!!

    Posted by: Freddie Boy on May 21st, 2008 at 4:18 pm

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