All heart, little soul: How the I 'love' sign took over India’s public spaces

In his book, Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon, art historian Martin Kemp outlines the fascinating and complex use of the heart shape over history — from the anatomical depictions to the symmetrical symbol. Kemp writes: “It is a shape that is appealing in its simple yet seductive rhythm, and once seen it is difficult to forget. It is like the melody of a great pop song.” And it seems like Indian cities are stuck with this earworm. From Kohima to Bandra to Darjeeling and Anjaw, India’s easternmost district in Arunachal Pradesh, we are going dhak-dhak for this design.

WHY THE HEART WORKS?

Contemporary artistBandana Jain calls theheart a deceptively simpleyet powerful visualform. “It functions as analmost universal semioticdevice. It does not requirenarrative framing, yet itis immediately legible,”she says. “Its strength liesin its ability to cut acrosscaste, creed, age, ethnicity,gender and religiousidentities.” Therein liesits gift and its curse. Thisvery universality rendersit culturally neutraland placeless. “While itefficiently communicatesemotion, it does not engagewith site specific narrativesor socio-spatial contexts.”

IS THE HEART IN THE RIGHT PLACE?

Nearly a decade ago, Delhi-based artist Rouble Nagi pioneered the hashtag sculpture movement in India with #Bandra — not as a formula, but as a site-specific intervention. The intent, she says, was civic and functional: To give physical space a digitalvoice, bridge citizens and local authorities, and create a landmark for organic engagement. It was never meant to be a template. “What we see today, however, is a troubling flattening of public visual culture,” she says.


Sameep Padora, principal architect and founder of Mumbai-based studio sP+a, says, “There’s nothing wrong with these selfie stations serving as frivolous points of engagement, but we can foster deeper engagements with the city.” Known for work rooted in local materiality and climate, Padora adds, “As a copy of the global symbols like I ‘heart’ NY, it doesn’t elevate your city to that status. It’s a low-hanging fruit to create an aspirational piece of public art that doesn’t improve your experience of a neighbourhood.”

ACHY-BREAKY HEART

Kamini Sawhney, head public arts project at BLRHubba, says, “The problem with mass-produced signage that is linked to identity is that it homogenises it — the very thing that is unique to every community and enriches our cultural landscape.” The signs have percolated down to the neighbourhoods. Padora says this takes away the uniqueness of each locality, making it “an empty gesture with no context”.

While art that builds a sense of belonging and symbols that aim for visibility can exist in the same physical space, they operate on entirely different emotional registers, says Nagi. The symbols prioritise recognisability, speed, and shareability, with a purpose to brand a city rather than to understand it. “But they rarely speak to the lived experiences of the people who walk past them every day,” she says.

THE WANDERING HEART

Art that builds belonging, says Nagi, grows out of context. “It creates a moment of recognition, (this is ours, this is us), and that cannot be mass produced.” This thinking shaped her #NewDelhi sign at Khan Market. “For me, every artwork in a public space must be site specific. It should respond to the architecture, the movement of people, the social energy of the location.” So, even if every artist has a different style, the work is true to the place and not easily replicated, which she says erases meaning. “Belonging is built through intention, listening, and specificity. Visibility is built through repetition. Public art deserves the former.”

Baarish Date, founder of design studio Graphics Beyond that specialises in wayfinding, signage, environmental graphics and placemaking, says, “On a granular level, a lot of what’s done in western countries is in a controlled and contextual manner.

Typographic word art must have a relevance to the place.” What irks him? Cheap acrylic, perspex signs. “These have no connection to the space or an understanding of the visual vocabulary of the actual NY sign.”

PUTTING THE ART IN HEART

As a self-proclaimed ‘type’-obsessed person, typographer Prajwal Xavier notices signs at heritage buildings and says that most are cluttered with modern signage made from acrylic or plastic. He adds, “We already have a natural tendency to adopt good ideas and influences from the West. This concept, when first used in NY, was simple, human and highly interactive.” That can’t be replicated here.

Nagi says, “If public design is to move beyond cliché, we must rethink how it is commissioned to trusting artists to interpret the cultural DNA of a location, instead of defaulting to safe, repetitive forms that prioritise convenience, politics, and sponsorship over meaning and integrity.” Agrees Jain who says, “When public design prioritises social-media visibility alone, it risks reducing layered histories into easily consumable imagery.”

WHAT THE HEART WANTS

Padora counts Bhopal as one of the best examples of how a city has played to its strength with promenades and cycle tracks built around the lake. “Public art must be designed in a way that we, as a community, can experience the streets. This will take it away from the surface-level beautification drives.”

According to Xavier, one must incorporate India’s vast range of traditional craft such as wood, stone, metal, terracotta and Indian fonts. Date agrees, adding that it should not be restricted to airports, but occupy space at medians, traffic islands, bus stations and railway stations. “Proliferation and promotion of local art cannot be restricted to souvenir shops, fashion shows, airports and five stars.”

Experts believe that public art has the potential to construct powerful urban narratives. This requires investing in informed curation, long-term vision, and collaborations with artists, historians, designers and local communities. Jain says, “Public art must be treated as a critical cultural infrastructure capable of shaping both memory and economy.” It’s time to put our heads together, instead of the heart.

Heart-to-Heart

A brief timeline of the design

1977: Graphic designer Milton Glaser creates the I ♥ NY for New York State’s tourism campaign during the city’s fiscal crisis
1980s: The logo becomes a success
1990s-early 2000s: Cities and countries across Europe, Asia and Australia adapt it
Mid-2000s: Starts migrating from print and souvenirs to public spaces as sculptural signages
2010s: In the age of Instagram, now seen globally as urban ‘selfie infrastructure’

Don’t bypass the city

“We move from one gated community where we live to another where we work. The city, however, is the space in between buildings and not plots where buildings sit on. We zip through it, never interacting with it. Good public design ensures that people don’t bypass the city. People tend to look after a space where they have a sense of ownership”

— SAMEEP PADORA, principal architect and founder, sP+a

Go local

“India has an exceptionally rich visual archive, regional typographies, indigenous craft practices, vernacular materials, food cultures and occupational histories. When these are overlooked in favour of a universally recognisable icon, public art loses its contextual grounding. It must hold this layered conversation with place, allowing history, memory and contemporary realities to coexist within the same spatial narrative”

— BANDANA JAIN, artist

Involve the community

“When communities are genuinely involved in the process, something powerful happens: People develop a sense of ownership and protect what they’ve helped shape; deeper, more authentic narratives emerge, and the aesthetic language of the work becomes richer, more layered and unmistakably human. Participation doesn’t have to look like everyone picking up a brush. It can take the form of conversations, neighbourhood walks, workshops, or simply attentive listening”

— ROUBLE NAGI, artist

Civic pride sans sense

“These have metastasised into fibreglass shrines to our selfie addiction. I can see the point of I ❤️ Mumbai or I ❤️ Delhi. But I ❤️ Tingre Nagar in Pune? My personal favourite is the I ❤️ Lokhandwala selfie point, positioned elegantly next to a stinking sewer and perpetually blocked by pigeon-feeders dumping leftovers on the footpath. Nothing says civic pride quite like a sculpture no one can approach without a tetanus shot”

— Anoop Menon, brand strategist

Turn back time

“We have excellent architects, designers, stylists, but when it comes to public properties, the responsibility is often handed over to civil engineers or administrators. In ancient India, architecture and public spaces were given immense importance. Time, thought and craftsmanship were invested in them. That sensitivity is missing in the current system”

— PRAJWAL XAVIER, adman, typographer and conducts type walk

Rethink public art

“Public art can’t be achieved through L1 tenders. Governments must take lead to work with newer, contemporary artists who understand applied art. Public art today must have a certain level of abstraction so that we don’t appear to be a dated civilisation”

— BAARISH DATE, founder, Graphics Beyond