Type Battle 22: Epigraphy
Here's your chance to stretch your type muscles on a weekly basis. You have one week to create and submit your entry. Anyone may submit a design response to the challenge. You may enter as often as you wish. Post anytime. Critiques and comments are welcome throughout the game, from participants and spectators alike. Smack talk is encouraged.
As with any street battle, there is no panel of judges and no prize — only the ability to call yourself the best on the block.
Link directly to this thread: http://www.typophile.com/battle22
// REQUIREMENTS
- Image size: 550 width x 400 height. 72 dpi
- Color: Full color or BW -- you decide!
- Format: Please save your graphics as PNG or JPG
// THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE:
It is time to leave the comforts of digital technology (at least partially) and get back to the basics. Utilizing the tool of your choice, scratch the following word into an object or surface:
Epigraphy
- Tools might include: a knife, a stick or your fingernails.
- Objects may be: an apple, a stone or your arm.
- Photograph or scan the results and submit to the battle.
There is no photoshoppery or digital manipulation of any kind allowed!
Winner take all, no holds barred. May be the best designer win.




15.Apr.2008 2.32pm
15.Apr.2008 4.10pm
Oooh, goody goody! I'm on it, Zara. ;P But I'm pretty sure that, for me, this won't go as well as the last one, though…
Typophiles: to the battle stations! xD
ruD
16.Apr.2008 10.34am
16.Apr.2008 12.58pm
it's all about the x-acto
16.Apr.2008 4.39pm
What? Do something not on a computer? Okaaaaay.
16.Apr.2008 5.00pm
So...epigraphy is backwards. I meant to do that. yeah.

MuckTalon rulz!
Juggrbudz luv MuckTalon
16.Apr.2008 7.41pm
17.Apr.2008 6.04am
17.Apr.2008 6.09am
well um, i guess you took it there... :)
17.Apr.2008 10.15am
Hmmm that is going to be hard to beat.
17.Apr.2008 10.38am
Petra, that is really lovely!
It is on folks…
17.Apr.2008 10.50am
Petra, that is the most beautiful thing I've seen on Typophile in a long time.
17.Apr.2008 11.36am
it is definitely on. what time do i have until to post? friday at midnight?
17.Apr.2008 1.02pm
17.Apr.2008 1.29pm
17.Apr.2008 1.47pm
Ruben, What does it mean?
17.Apr.2008 2.25pm
@Victor - you have until Monday to post.
@Mick - I don't see the word "Epigraphy." Am I missing it?
17.Apr.2008 6.12pm
OK if I found it?
quite the coincidence that I'd find this today, of all days, eh?
-=®=-
17.Apr.2008 9.57pm
Lame! They're all lame, with varying degrees of lameness. Since when did Typophile become a collective of cliches?
Keep it up, and I may be forced to enter!
17.Apr.2008 11.07pm
@Hiroshige
I think that if you are going to call everyone's submissions out as lame, then you'd best step up to the plate!
:)
18.Apr.2008 12.39am
Too right Zara! Too right. Let's go Neil! Knock one out of the ballpark for us.
I was thinking of writing in the snow myself... Snow is hard to photograph though. I guess I am waiting for a beautiful idea to clobber me over the head.
18.Apr.2008 1.06am
OK, my own piece of lameness :-D
...scratched with the extracting-stones-from-horses-hooves tool in an old Swiss Army knife. Perhaps the CD inside should be the "Things to Come" soundtrack... (kudos to anyone who works out why)
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Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster's stopped working.
18.Apr.2008 2.59am
Nicely done!
18.Apr.2008 4.58am
Eben, I was hoping it would mean something to someone… I was also waiting for someone to go OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT TO THAT BOOK only to reveal I had to make a copy of the cover because I couldn't bring myself to do that to the original. :P
I kind of agree with Hiroshige. I'm a bit disappointed in myself, but I just did something to enter while I was waiting for a great idea to come and "clobber me over the head", like Eben…
We're all waiting to be amazed, though, Hiroshige, be it by our own idea or by those of others; I hope you can come up with it, you'll get all the street cred and props. :P
That said, I quite like Eliason's, Petra's (her name, too), Russell's and Dave's.
When I saw Petra's I thought "is that how a lowercase Y is in blackletter?" I have some trouble recognizing blackletter characters separately…
Anyway, I'll keep waiting for someone to blow us all away. More so than Petra. :P
18.Apr.2008 5.04am
“...waiting for someone to go OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT TO THAT BOOK..."
...Must admit I was tempted. But the thinness of the edges of the paper made me suspect that maybe you'd defaced a copy rather than your original :-D
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Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster's stopped working.
18.Apr.2008 7.03am
im glad i didn't post the cd case i started. dtw - you must work in an office. I know the xacto and cd case were the first things i grabbed between laying out some ads and hiding it from co-workers. sweet job though.
18.Apr.2008 7.06am
thanks Zara
18.Apr.2008 8.18am
Thank you for your comments, I am glad you like it.
It is supposed to be the font "Breite Kanzlei". I have this awsome book "Fraktur" from Albert Kapr. I had a hard time choosing a typeface, because there are so many beautiful ones. I used the tip of a pair of compasses and scrached it into my chair. And yes, this is how the "y" looks like, kind of.
Petra
18.Apr.2008 8.31am
I should be printing... anyway, as I am awaiting some ink to dry, while I am waiting I did this shot:
I love PR's piece :)
André
18.Apr.2008 9.59am
I was tempted to recreate Sagmeister's AIGA poster, but then I thought it would hurt, not be original, and my girlfriend (and others) would think I was insane/suicidal.
The submissions that actually took the time to create (or trace?) a typeface (dtw, pr) were quite interesting!
18.Apr.2008 4.18pm
Although cutting in the word "epigraphy" on your body would puzzle people… "is he suicidal or is he just trying to make a point in a very profound way?" :P There has to have been someone who did that before Sagmeister, though; he just made it a bit more visible. No?
But you're right, Chipman, actually drawing the outlines of the letters and filling them makes this a lot more interesting. And Sagmeister didn't do that! :P I thought about that, for my entry, but I didn't quite know how to accomplish that with the letters I drew.
And I got lazy.
That's probably the main reason.
Where's your entry, Chipman? Come on! Just post something! You too, Hiroshige! :P
19.Apr.2008 9.45am
I guess I was hoping for some clever and meaningful idea (beside the fact that we're carving out the word "epigraphy", of course), but oh well… I'll just carve out something nice. But when you were trained as a designer, just making pretty things for the beauty of it always seems a bit random… is that what you're aiming for, Eben? Where's yours? I'm curious… the clock's ticking! :P
Anyways, here they are, a lot less lazy and a bit more interesting for Chipman and myself:
This one was just a bad idea, because the wavy texture of the cardboard underneath and the fact that it's all the same colour makes it hard to visualize and photograph (which is why I'm showing you three pictures of it). So then I did this one on the back of the same shoe box (I'm a bit slow, but I get there):
Sorry for spamming pictures, but I couldn't choose just one…
ruD
19.Apr.2008 10.16am
Eben,
As long as you are not writing to make yellow snow :-)
ChrisL
19.Apr.2008 11.50am
That'd be easy this morning in Edmonton
20.Apr.2008 1.22am
It is pretty frustrating trying to find new fresh snow when I keep on getting as far as epigra... and then I am out. I must need to drink more water.
20.Apr.2008 3.56am
LOL
What you need is a second shooter.
20.Apr.2008 6.32am
Super soaker (squirt gun) with some yellow food coloring?
20.Apr.2008 7.30am
Super soaker? Bah! whatever happened to authenticity? :o)
-=®=-
20.Apr.2008 7.59am
Eben, there is a new invention called beer that aids in that department :-)
ChrisL
20.Apr.2008 10.15am
first time on typophile. I get out from the hospital two days ago. just one harm a skrewdriver and a blackpaper where i scratched on.
20.Apr.2008 9.14pm
Limited edition available, hand cut on CD of your choice, price upon request.
21.Apr.2008 1.38am
Here's an alternative - in an attempt to feel more ‘authentic' than my first, this time I drew the characters ‘from scratch' (ho-ho) rather than copying someone else's, and worked into an old lump of metal I use as a straight edge (much more unfriendly surface to scratch into than CD-case plastic).
...didn't quite manage to keep the same style from the first ‘p' to the second!
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Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster's stopped working.
21.Apr.2008 4.52am
Cutting-edge work there, Dave :-)
ChrisL
21.Apr.2008 5.53am
ROFL, cheers Chris. :-)
I've gotta assume we have no regular battlers living near the beach; huge letters scratched in the sand with a stick would seem such a temptation, especially with the really easy "multiple undo" available that most of these other efforts don't have!
[Imagines some anamorphic design like the adverts painted onto sports fields so that they look upright when viewed from the right angle...]
(PS to Zara: shouldn't this battle be indexed on the main battles page?)
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Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster's stopped working.
21.Apr.2008 12.30pm
@Ruben - great stuff!
@dtw - I spent the last three days at the beach and I can't believe I never thought to draw in the sand for this battle. And yes, you are right - these should be indexed. Thanks for the reminder :)
21.Apr.2008 12.51pm
Just started in Typophile yesterday :) Here's my shot at epigraphy.
21.Apr.2008 1.10pm
Thanks for participating, everyone!
This week's battle has been posted:
http://www.typophile.com/battle23