Typography

Graphic and motion designer Vinicius Araujo envisioned iconic industrial designs from electronics brands as Helvetica letter forms corresponding to their brand names. We’d love to see actual products designed this way. Check out the full alphabet in his Behance portfolio.

Designed by Paul Renner in 1927, Futura became the first widely used sans serif font and remains a popular choice because of its efficient and clean design. Vox put on its Wes Anderson hat to sum up the font’s history.

It’s the world’s most derided and improperly used typeface, but there’s no denying that Comic Sans is iconic. Great Big Story introduces us to Vincent Connare, the typographer who came up with the casual font while working at Microsoft, and explains its genesis.

Vox looks at the history and evolution of comic book lettering. The most well known style – all caps, italicized, and with consistent thickness – was developed to make text easier to read on cheap paper. But there are dozens of comic book fonts and lettering styles.

Creative studio Nelson Cash made a web app that lets you make your own text in the style of Stranger Things’ title design. You can download the image, tweet it, or post it on Facebook.

Stranger Things’ title sequence is a perfect complement to the show’s ’80s aesthetic. Vox spoke with the folks who made the sequence, Imaginary Forces – who also made the openers for Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, Jessica Jones, etc. – about their project.

Dan Perri has created titles and title sequences for Star Wars IV, Taxi Driver, Gangs of New York and more. He spoke with the Oscars about his career, his tools and his penchant for adapting rather than stamping his own style to the movie he’s working on.

Vox once again asking the right questions. The infamous Wingdings was never meant to be used as a substitute for letters. Like its predecessor, its characters are meant to be used to decorate a page. Some symbols also stand in for words, i.e. as emoticons.

Dangerdust is the moniker of two (partially) anonymous Columbus College of Art & Design students. Every week, they make impressive typographic chalk art of a memorable quote and leave it on campus. Learn more about them here.

(NSFW: Language) The music video for Aerosol Can features an ill typographic time-lapse, achieved with the help of graffiti and tattoo artist Mike Giant and creative studio Abel14. The song is from Major Lazer’s latest EP Apocalypse Soon.

A stop-motion animation about the origin and the pivotal developments in the field of typography. Ben Barrett-Forrest does a great job of explaining the differences and the rationale behind different typefaces.

Wonderful posters with imagery made using food and ingredients. Visual communication design student Nina Harcus made them for a story/recipe book about a chef who falls in love with typography.

Inspired by the famous Penrose Triangle, Martzi Hegedűs created Frustro, a typeface that also serves as an optical illusion. All Frustro characters face two different directions at once.

Equal parts game, social commentary and homage to iconic logos, the Brand Memory Game has players identifying matching cards based on the colors, style and typography of famous brand logos.

Do you constantly put things off until tomorrow? Then watch this brief typographic animation for a little explanation – and advice – on procrastination. Watch now, and don’t bookmark it for later.

Weird Al’s anthem for people who are saddled with human spam. Share the song to them for a not-so-subtle hint. Of course they might think the song sucks and hate you for forwarding crap to them.

We love the bold typography and nonsensical sayings that Noa Bembibre’s calendar has to offer. Sold in an edition of 700, it’s printed in four colors on and finished with black ribbon binding,

Viktor Hertz uses his image manipulation jutsu to poke fun at popular brands. Some of the logos are funnier than others while many are exaggerated, but they all look just like the real deal.

Part of Ufuk Keskin’s Flatobjects series, Typeshelf turns the symbol into the symbolized – or is the other way around? Either way, you can also have your order customized with your own design.

LetterMPress lets you experience traditional letterpress printing on the iPad. Every step of the process is emulated, providing a familiar interface for experts and a friendly start for beginners.

Dana Tanamachi is a graphic designer who makes custom chalk signs. She’s created pieces for magazines, book covers, hotels and even one of Google’s offices. More here. Watch her work here.

Jacob Gilbreath made this gigantic slab of kinetic typography from Conan O’Brien’s unforgettable, inspiring and touching farewell message on the last episode of his stint at The Tonight Show.

Design student Andrew Clifford Capener has created the A-1 Scrabble Designer Edition, which would come with customized typography tiles, a walnut scrabble board and cork lined exterior box.

The Type Sandwiches series, a typographic series of food created using only color and the Helvetica font, is part of David Schwen’s MSCED project and was inspired by his original Burgervetica design.

Ricepirate’s hysterically funny typographical video features an epic voice actor’s performance of a game review rant by a 13 year old, committing to all its grammatical belligerence. (Thanks Jorgen!)

Calligraphist Luca Barcellona shows off his Fraktur writing skills for the Legacy of Letters tour. We never thought watching someone write could be this absorbing. Props for the great music.

If anyone out there is looking for a little inspiration for the new year, Taylor Mali’s dynamic poem for a teacher’s inservice audience should do the trick – whether you’re in education or not. (Thanks Doug!)

The late American typographer Ed Rondthaler explains some of the idiosyncracies and complexities of spelling in the English language. It’s a miracle any of us actually know how to spell.

Jarrett Heather says he spent between 500 to 1000 hours to create this kinetic typography video for Jonathan Coulton’s suburban ballad, Shop-Vac. Judging by the quality of the video, we believe him.

Hank of the Vlog Brothers gives us a primer about quarks via a catchy tune and kinetic typography. If only high school Physics was this addictive. “Up, Down, Strange, Charm, Top, Bottom…”

Joby Cummings has woven the 7 deadly sins into the unmistakable likeness of a skull, while also providing a convenient way to keep track of how to avoid eternal damnation. Thanks, man.

Matt Rogers created this kinetic typography based on a segment of “Language”, a podcast by British TV host, writer and comedian Stephen Fry. You can download the entire podcast here.