From the Garden
Mother India showed us the way
Why the BAAGH lettering owes its shape to a film poster painted in 1957.
We've received a fair bit of appreciation for our label and bottle. Really, the credit belongs to the iconic Mother India poster, painted by B.M. Gupta in 1957.
Jatin Dev Bobb, Founder
The poster, and the type, hasn't aged a day, and it was a great starting point for Baagh's identity. We wanted to steer away from a Pinterest-y, sans-serif, clean-looking thing, and instead make the label and the type strong, with a clear identity that would hopefully stand the test of time.
What was borrowed
Not the letterforms themselves. What carried across was the logic underneath them: very high contrast between thick and thin strokes, a tight cap height with almost no breathing room, and serifs that read as though they were cut with a brush rather than measured with a ruler. Poster painters worked fast and at scale, and the type had to hold up from across a street.
Set the two side by side and the family resemblance is in the proportions rather than the shapes. Similar cap height. Similar contrast ratio. Serifs that come to a point instead of a slab.