Letters of Meaning

Gary Fogelson and Phil Lubliner take type and concepts seriously. We”ll try not to flood this blog with their work, but it will definitely show up again. In this example for the New York Times Letters section pieces of each war or conflict (vowels to be specific), from Korea to Iraq are moved and fitted into each other, asking you to pause and make the connections between our counties.

Mario Hugo‘s contribution to Posters of Fortune¬†uses ambiguous means to create a super-moody interpretation of the fortune cookie fortune.

 Paul Sahre will possibly dominate this blog. His use of type, writing and mind-blowing concepts is unparalleled. This is pure Sahre, space, wonder, philosophy and a New York Times Op-Ed.

Brand Reversions comes from the mind of designer Graham Smith. A super-simple idea executed very well, Smith switches major brand logos with their rivals to remind us how ingrained their forms are in our brains. Tons and tons of examples of this help to make the point, our brains are full of typography and our brands take some serious ownership of certain forms.

Wayne White is one of the more abstract examples of visual problem-solving with typography. His work is definitely beautiful and like fellow word-based artists Ed Ruscha and Lawrence Weiner, the “problems” his work “solves” are a bit obtuse. Yet you cannot deny the thinking induced by the beauty of his work. The above example, a beach at sunset with the “word” AWCMON, evokes disappointment in the end of a sunny day or the dissatisfaction with anything ending for that matter.

Anthony Burrill the artist and designer whose work is more often about making type invisible and his personal messages extremely clear, gives in to a little bit of material concept here with his poster printed with spilled oil from the Gulf of Mexico.

Craig Ward (Words are Pictures) is able to mix mediums with vivid results. This piece about typography keeps your attention and questions legibility.

Bloomberg Businessweek has been known for its amazingly hardworking typography. With helvetica throughout its full of swiss seriousness, but its covers and story introductions can create a great contrast. This one in particular provides a great voice to the cover”s question.

A simple message from Neuarmy‚ learning is earning. Unfortunate we don”t see these two words together much at all.

SPD had a nice post last month about magzine covers featuring Sarah Palin. They are all pretty interesting, but this one struck out fancy for its typographic smarts. Interesting that FedEx would come to define branding typography, or at least that what it seams here in color and tone.