Stick More Bills: An Analysis of Indian Posters in Film, Politics, & Beyond

Poster House is pleased to partner with Shiva Nallaperumal, Priya Prabhakar, and Somnath Bhatt for a wide-ranging panel discussion on regional posters from India. This conversation will explore the graphic elements within Indian posters, drawing from the museum’s permanent collection and the larger history of the genre. Particular attention will be paid to the typographic elements of these designs, as well as the cultural and sociopolitical contexts that inform these images, highlighting the regional and the plural. Questions are strongly encouraged!

Shiva Nallaperumal is a graphic designer, art director, and typeface designer and co-founder (with Juhi Vishnani) of the plural design practice November. Through November, he has created identity systems, printed matter, installations, and typefaces for a wide variety of clients from culture and commerce, including Apple Music, Uber, the New York Times, Bodice, NBA, etc. As a typeface designer, he has worked with Commercial Type, Typotheque, Bold Monday, Sharp Type, and Lost Type Co-op. In 2017, he was selected as one of Forbes India’s 30 under 30, and in 2019 inducted into the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI).

Priya Prabhakar is a tenant organizer, researcher, and filmmaker based in Oakland and originally from Chennai, India. Her undergraduate thesis focused on the perils of biometric surveillance in India and ways to counter techno-fascism. She has previously done curation for South Asia Art, highlighting poster design and visual insignia of radical street theatre in Delhi. She loves textiles, chess, and archives.

Somnath Bhatt is a designer, artist, and writer who lives between Ahmedabad and New York City. His work has been shown at MoMA PS1, Art Week Dubai, India Art Fair, ICA London, and Mécènes du Sud Montpellier-Sète, among other venues. Selected clients include Instagram, the New York Times, Reebok, HYEIN SEO, and the musicians Nicolás Jaar and Mitski. Currently he is an independent Art Director at Bloomberg. He also works as a contributing editor at MOLD Magazine and AIGA Eye on Design. Somnath believes in the power of the unseen, the chaos of myth, and that labor has the right to all it creates.