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  • Access Ramps
  • Addresses
  • Advertising Graffiti
  • Air Conditioners
  • Aluminum Facades
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  • Balcony Panels
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  • Carved Eaves
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  • Cast Iron Fences
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  • Children's Graffiti
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  • Coal Shed Windows
  • Commemorative Plaques
  • Concrete Fences
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  • Corner Pilasters
  • Corrugated Metal
  • Courtyard Sculptures
  • Dead Entryways
  • Decorative Plaster Facades
  • Decorative Sheet Metal
  • DIY Downspouts
  • Doorbells
  • Dormers
  • Duplexes
  • Ear Graffiti
  • Fire Hydrant Signs
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  • Gilted Aluminum
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  • Graffiti
  • Granite Facades
  • Hand Pumps
  • Handpainted Signs
  • Insulation
  • Insulators
  • Kiosks
  • Lanterns
  • Limestone
  • Mailboxes
  • Manhole Covers
  • Masonry Patterns
  • Metal Gates
  • Metal Plates
  • Mosaic Bus Stops
  • Mosaics
  • Natural Elements
    • Birds
    • Creeks
    • Strays
    • Weeds
  • Painted Trees
  • Paver Blocks
  • Pedestrian Paths
  • Pedestrian Underpasses
  • Pigeon Perches
  • Remodeled Roofs
  • Romantic Graffiti
  • Scrap Metal Signs
  • Security Bars
  • Sgraffito
  • Soviet Cars
  • Stalinki
  • Stencil Graffiti
  • Telephone Poles
  • Tile Facades
  • Tires
  • Trash Cans
  • Trash Removal
  • Utility Boxes
  • Ventilated Facades
  • Vestibule Windows
  • Window Signs
  • Wooden Gates
  • Wood Slats

Handpainted Signs

The appeal of the handpainted sign is the lack of pretension. The artists are not trying to start a movement, push any boundaries, or make a philosophical statement. In fact, they likely don't consider themselves artists at all. They are folks with a need, and they meet that need in the easiest way possible. Some need to issue a warning, so they find a piece of cardboard and a marker. Others need to advertise their business, so they take out some of their children's paint. Others need to mark their home, or try to sell it, so they put out a sign of their own making. The intentions behind these objects are entirely unromantic, but the final products, if understood in a certain way, become feats of aesthetic accomplishment. 

There might be something about the Russian language that lends itself to charming signage. When any literate Russian speaker takes up a pen, they write the Cyrillic alphabet not in the blocky letters of the printing press but with highly-competent cursive. The script is taught from an early age and is universal; locals here express horror when I tell them about the handwriting habits of young Americans. But when Almatians want to express something to the public on a sign, they usually don't go with cursive, so associated with personal notes. They try to tackle the block letters of the advertising billboard, and the results look unsure and unpracticed. Writing with this bold lettering, they also tend to write in all-caps, which gives any sign a lot of personality: "YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO PARK HERE!"

The parking sign, by the way, has to be the most reiterated written thing in all of Almaty. Sure, there is some variation in the wording: "DON'T BLOCK THE PASSAGE!"; "PARKING IS FORBIDDEN!"; "DON'T LEAVE YOUR CARS HERE!"; or the unusually polite, "WE REQUEST THAT YOU DON'T BLOCK THE GATE!" What's more interesting than the word use is the subtext. Every warning is evidence of some prior offense, some gate owner who got miffed. The signs come off as desperate and exasperated, and of course the caps-lock doesn't help. 

The next sign that's most consistently quirky is of a different genre altogether: the sign for the shoe repair shop. Ex-Soviets, after lifetimes in a shortage economy, are notoriously thrifty, and they try to get the most out of their footwear, one more night out of their broken heels. The guys who glue their shoes back together are apparently just as cheap. The boot and hammer has become a widespread symbol for these stores, and they are handpainted across town, and if even that's too much than you just need to paint two words, remont obuvi [ремонт обуви; "shoe repair"] outside your little workshop and you're done. It's probably not an industry with the highest profit margins, so one can hardly blame them for skimping on the logo. 

Other common handpainted signs are the home address, the "for sale", the scrap metal solicitation, and the neighborhood convenience store (though this is a dying breed). They all beg the same questions of unknown authorship. Who once wrote these words down? Would they admit to having any skill of their own? The handwritten sign, after all, is a testament to the unpraised competence of the everyman. The colors, the eye-catching compositions, they all suggest that your average insulted driveway owner is more aesthetically tuned than his neighbors might believe. Let's allow them their anonymity. It's better that way, knowing the world is full of expressive minds, content to make gestures without recognition.  


"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
Shoe repair
Shoe repair
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"Shoe repair"
"No parking"
"No Parking"
"No parking!"
"Don't block the entrance."
"Please don't block the exit"
"Please don't block the way"
"Exit. Don't park. Fine 2000 Tenge."
"Don't block the exit! No entrance!"
"Don't block"
Don't block the exit!
"Don't park. Exit."
"Entrance. Don't block."
"Don't leave your cars."
Don't block the passage
"Don't put your cars here."
"Attention! Swinging gates! Parking not allowed!"
"It is kindly requested that you don't block the entrance. But if you do I'll slash your tires!"
"Don't obstruct the exits"
"Parking not allowed"
"No unauthorized visitors allowed."
"No unauthorized visitors allowed."
"No littering. Fine 5000 Tenge."
"No littering. Fine 10,000 Tenge! Don't pollute your beloved city!"
"No littering. Don't spoil nature!"
"Don't toss your trash and bread. Fine 2000 Tenge."
"No littering. Fine 2000 Tenge."
Don't litter
"No littering. Fine 50,000 Tenge to City Hall."
"Auto Shop."
"Garage co-op Sadovnika"
"Kamkor-2 Join Stock Company. Parking Lot 8. Hours of Operation 6-11."
"Car window repair"
"Vulcanization"
"Welding services. Exhaust repairs, any configuration. Radio installation. Charge or fill batteries."
"Brake pad and shock absorber replacement"
"Car repair. AC. Radiators. Ovens."
"Tire installation.
"Radiator repair"
"Installation of gas boilers, gas heaters, pumps, heating, heated floors."
"Udacha [Luck]"
"Yernar Grocery Store.
"Cafe Railyam"
"Nazyn market"
"Ayaköz"
"Altyn [Golden] Grocery Store"
"Store. Vending Machine"
"Store - Alfalfa seeds and vegetables - Melons"
"Drumstick. Chickens. Eggs. Dairy products. Wholesale and retail. 'Salem' Pavilion."
"Kurdak. Laghman. Manty. Tushpara. Tea. Coffee."
"Fruits and vegetables"
"Fruits and Vegetables"
"Fruits and Vegetables"
"Honey"
"Honey"
"Wine and vodka, wholesale and retail."
"Pharmacy"
"Cell phone accessories. Chargers, shells, headphones, lights, various parts."
"Basko LLC"
"Saudakent market"
"Library"
"Car wash"
"Lottery"
Zlatoustovskaya 3
"Mail"
"Angry dog"
"Caution, Dog"
"Caution. Angry dog in yard."
"Angry dog."
"House for sale"
"House for sale"
"For sale"
"House for sale"
"House for sale"
Half a home for sale
"House for sale"
"Apartment for rent"
House for sale
"House for sale. Urgent"
"For sale"
"Mind your car"
"Mind your car"
Garage Open from 6:00-24:00
"Hours of operation"
"Hours of operation: From 6 to 11"
"Lunch from 1-2pm"
"Closed"
"Walking on tracks can be fatal!"
"Olympics"
"Barbershop"
"Cakes"
"Nauryz. Hours of operation 6-11. Break 2-3."
Haircuts. Hours: 11:00-6:00
Room for rent by the day
Don't smoke!
"Adalat" Store
Fuel Injector Repair
Sauna
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