Awesome Typography

Designers Graham Plumb and Stephen Braitsch collaborated on this amazing mechanical display that uses a series of 180 magnets to write text in a pool of ferrofluid. They built 10 custom machines which are programmed to raise and lower magnets, creating the segmented letters in the oily fluid.

Husband and wife design team Gareth Smith & Jenny Lee’s typographic short film plays a clever visual trick, simulating the physics of what might happen if all of the letters on advertising signage started to break loose from their appropriate locations, and came to rest in totally haphazard ways.

Director Dimitri Basil’s music video for the Joywave track Obsession is both a tribute to and a loving parody of vintage movie title sequences, featuring an array of convincing, but fake opening credits for spaghetti westerns, exploitation flicks, B-movies, and much more. Quentin Tarantino would be proud.

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.

A limited edition chess set by Hat Trick Design for typography enthusiasts. The chess pieces take the form of the first letter(s) of their names. Made from laser cut acrylic. Video here.

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.

Dyslexie is a typeface specially designed and proven in studies to help dyslexics read. Designed by Christian Boer (who is also dyslexic) of Studiostudio. Too bad it’s so expensive.

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.