'Typography as art'

stephen
10.Nov.2006 2.13am
stephen's picture

Hi
I'm looking for examples of 'Typography as art' ie where letterform is the only or main part of a piece of art.
If you have any links or suggestions I would be happy to hear them.
Stephen R

Kurt Schwitters
El Lissitzky
Piet Zwart
Hendrik Werkman


Marinetti

Blast

Journal of the Vorticists can't find any of the internal pages at the moment.

Tim


my favourite; Ed Ruscha


Bruce Nauman
Barbara Kruger
Jenny Holzer


In sweden we have a designer Gabor Palotai, he often uses only typography to create his design/art. However I’m not sure it is supposed to be called art or not — and btw, who is the judge of that — but it sure is "arty". He has done a few books that is quite cool.


The most popular and well known is probably "Love" by Robert Indiana.


Look for Arabic, there is an old 1990 Baseline magazine with some good examples. I had it but someone at Microsoft didn't give it back to me.

http://www.islamicart.com/main/calligraphy/index.html


There has been a great exhbition at British Museum recently Word into Art I was so impressed that when I wento to Morocco I had bought some caligraphy in Essouaria and my wife started caligraphy doodling.


Of the arabic theme, there are some interesting typographic works in the 'Community' > 'Galeria' section here.


Oh yes, I second that Arabic is beautiful, but for me arabic is more an art of calligraphy, not typography. Two weeks ago I was to a seminar with Linotype’s Nadine Chahine who is developing the arabic fonts at Linotype. Some examples that she showed of old arabic calligraphy, it just blew my mind – so beautiful pieces of art.


christopher wool

(search google images)


hah, how one can forget this great chap
http://www.siscottdesign.com/


Drawings with Arabic ABC


Affiches lacérées:
François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Jacques Villeglé etc.


Pablo Picasso and George Braque
René Magritte
Ilia Zdanevich
Glenn Ligon
Fred Eerdekens

This book may be a helpful survey.


Dada.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=dada&btnG=Google+Search&ie=UTF-8...

not sure why that link is not active, but I did an image search for Dada on google and found a lot of examples of typography art.


Thanks for that link, Satya. I've seen this guys work before (and loved it!), but didn't know who made it.


hey... azizwhat i like most in ur artwork is the" leader " ;)
gr8 work!
this is a type of arabic calligraphy art (kufi handasa)


Tom, you might enjoy this (via Typographica)
http://typeforyou.blogspot.com/2006/08/si-scott-interview.html

Not really an artist in the same terms as the others here but still.

Tim


I sure do, Tim! Thanks!


Mostafa, I love that stuff.

hhp


thanx hrant... i've got more ;)


Stephen,
There're a few gems here. I particularly like the large works work of Stefan Sagmeister.


it has to be said - a lot of stuff suggested here that isn't art.


Miles's comment reminds of something:
There was a guy on Typophile who was painting tableaus of letterforms.
In particular I remember one of a detail of a hedera. Very cool angle.

Rob, nice.

hhp


April Greiman

ChrisL


Here's that glyph tableau painter guy:
http://typophile.com/node/15101

hhp


Metofa, that piece of art does not belong to me.
See whose work and more in this Arabic site
Happy Exploring with Flowers





______________
Hiro


Who is that Hero? Shy?


Aziz, thanx alot 4 the site... interesting


Wow! Arabic Calligraphy is having a very good space in this topic. But I have to agree with Goran Soderstrom; I know a lot of good work of arabic calligaphy, especially here in Egypt we have some strong calligraphers! but most of arabic fonts - I have seen or even shared in making - are not having the quality that our calligraphy has. But Any way here what I can find regarding typography:
http://www.arabicfonts.com/logogallery.asp

Ahmad Shawkash


> most of arabic fonts ... are not having the quality that our calligraphy has.

Perhaps you agree, but: it does need a different kind of quality.

hhp


Acutally, I can't agree more.

Ahmad Shawkash


> most of arabic fonts … are not having the quality that our calligraphy has.
Plenty are the Arabic Fonts, but very few are Fonty

> Wow! Arabic Calligraphy is having a very good space in this topic.
Wow! ShawKash's Kaligrafi is having a very good space in this topic.


Thanks with Flowers


That link needs sometime to read before I write a comment there, and that will happen later. But from a fast reading there I can tell you have made some appreciated effort to solve some of the problem, Mr.Aziz. What about Shawkash's calligraphy and your capture of that small movie any way. I hope nothing wrong with it :-)

Ahmad Shawkash


Ahmad Shawkash, You mean the 2 forming One heart with a flower dancing over.
Simple yet Great! I love your Fonty Animation.


It is also appreciated you have noticed that; most of it's veiwers at that community didn't say anything about the flower. And from the short time chance of reading your messages here, allow me to describe you as someone in love with all world flowers.

Ahmad Shawkash


Maybe not art, but a building. I'm pretty sure it says something.

It's a hotel in Cairo.

Nick Cooke


That's right: Verses of the Glorious Quran in Kufi Style of Writing.
Nick Cooke, was it taken by you?
Regards with Flowers


fiona banner.....

she used type in her work which won the turner prize some yrs back.. with her large transcripts of porn.


One of my favourite pieces of 'type as art' is the video for Alex Gopher's 'The Child' video.

Watching something so intricate at low quality on a tiny screen size doesn't do it justice, it's really worth a look at in full-quality if you ever get the chance.


Someone told me that the institut du monde arabe
in Paris (architect Jean Nouvel) has also verses/words in its walls. I went there but I coudn't read anything! Anyone knows something about?


Aziz - yes it was taken by me.

Nick Cooke