Re-Branding Delhi’s Street Vendors One Storefront at a Time

Indianama, an art platform that curates and showcases the work of multidisciplinary artists with annual projects in India that aim to “express India through divergent and unifying ideas/ideologies that make the country”. The 2018 project, titled The Street Hustle, paired designers with vendors in Delhi to create bespoke brand designs highlighting the street vendors that bring so much life to India’s streets, and offering the street vendors the opportunity to create a brand identity.

Graphic designers were paired with vendors ranging from convenience stores to electrical repairs stores to design a complete brand identity for the vendor. The branding designs took the forms of business cards and leaflets all the way through to hand-painted storefront designs painted by local street painters. Locals and participating artists celebrated the redesigns and return of street painters that replaced the cheap and increasingly popular vinyl signage that was dubbed “visual pollution”.

The designers also had the chance to experiment with their designs and styles working one-on-one with their clients to create a brand design that truly represented the vendor. The project not only brought even more colour and life to the streets, but also acts as true exposure for the designers.