A Font Designed With E. Coli Bacteria

Image: Jelte van Abbema
Dutch designer Jelte van Abbema created a typeface out of e. coli bacteria. Cliff Kuang wrote in Fast Company about how he did it:
Van Abbema created the font by stamping bacteria into paper, and then placing the paper in a jury-rigged incubator, which provided the right humdity and warmth for the organisms. As they multiplied and died, the resulting fonts changed color and shape. As van Abbema says, bacteria “transforms the image to something new,” creating something that is literally alive, changing every minute without ever being tended.
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Folder Type Typography by Emilio Gomariz
Folder Type is a typography created by Emilio Gomariz out of 22,655 color-coded Mac file folders. And here’s the kicker: no script was used – he did it all by hand, which proves that his folder-fu is much, much stronger than mine and that he’s got a lot of time on his hands.
Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo clip] – via happy mundane
Slaughter House Five: Type and Form by Alida Rosie Sayer

Alida Rosie Sayer combined typography and papercraft to create her wonderful artwork. This one above, a series titled Slaughterhouse Five: Type and Form, is Alida’s way to visualize the cult novel by Kurt Vonnegut, by hanging hundreds of layers of hand cut letterpress prints.
Katerina Biliouri of Yatzer interviewed the artist:
You chose Vonnegut’s novel “Slaughterhouse Five” as the book for your three-dimensional typographic pieces. What lies behind the selection of the specific book?
I read the book a year and a half ago and it really struck a chord with me. I was particularly inspired by the concept of an alien race conceived by the confused mind of the main character who is trying to come to terms with difficult memories. The alien race addressed various issues he felt with his past experiences by not only presenting to him alternative methods of considering time, but also oneself in relation to it, with richly visual descriptions. To me the challenge of “visualising time” this way or trying to communicate visually what it could be like to see the past, present and future all at once was a very exciting prospect.
I decided that by using creative typography and quotes from the book itself, this would ground my work in a recognisable form and allow me to be more experimental without becoming entirely removed from the original subject.
TXT Island
[YouTube - Link]
TXT Island is a stop-motion film by Chris Gavin, who hand-crafted each frame using hundreds of plastic peg-board letters.
The films follows the endeavors of a squad of letters, as they delve deep into the jungle of a mysterious island. What is their mission? And will they succeed?
From the Upcoming
ueue, submitted by Christophe.
Physical Typography: Brilliant Built & Found Fonts

In a way, typography has come full circle – what started as a physical process of setting type in machines has been rediscovered as a physical art by a number of creative photographers and designers. Some of these unusual real-life alphabetic collections were found and photographed in nature while others were acted out, constructed or assembled from bodies and objects but all ten sets of type yield compelling images.
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Seb Lester's Typographical Art

Taking a look at Seb Lester’s work reminds me how much I enjoy typographical art. This one above, The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword, is available as a limited edition print at I Love Typography.
Don't Panic: Typographical Art by Stefan Chinof

WebUrbanist blog has a really nifty round up of 15 artworks done through typography. This one above is by Bulgarian illustrator Stefan Chinof, who uses the negative space to spell out "Don’t Panic."
Google Maps Typography
Rhett Dashwood has compiled a fastastical collection of buildings, lakes, fields, roads, forests, and other fun things you can see from space with a fancy pants satellite that form a complete alphabet.
The pic here shows letters from Victoria, Australia but of course one could apply this idea to anyone’s home town/state/ecosystem. Fun!
From the Upcoming
ueue, submitted by Another Jake.
3D Alphabets Cut Out of Styrofoam
When he was at Yale School of Architecture in 2002, John Caserta created a series of 3D alphabets cut out of styrofoam. A particular piece, like this "S" here, would have many sides with different letters on them!
Link [Flash]












