Type as fine art

Type is generally used to enhance an image or a product. It is much less often appreciated as art itself. Still, there are a great number of artists out there creating pieces dedicated to the beauty of type.


Linzie Hunter makes the ugly beautiful in her Spam Project. She takes the subject lines from ridiculous spam emails and renders them in various colorful and bubbly typefaces. (FYI, you can buy prints here.)


UK graphic designer Karl Firth populates his Flickr with many pages of his sketchbook and other work he has done. One of my favorites is this scratched photograph, which contrasts a lighthearted phrase with harsh and destructive scratches.