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Breathtaking Typographic Posters
You can’t design without type. However, yon can use only type (or mostly only type) to create breath-taking designs. In fact, many graphic designers and artists take exactly this route to communicate their ideas through their works. The results are sometimes crazy, sometimes artsy, sometimes beautiful, but often just different from things we’re used to. Thus designers explore new horizons and we explore new viewing perspectives which is what inspiration is all about.
You can’t design without type: this is an argument for it.
This post showcases over 50 breathtaking typographic posters designed by artists across the globe. We feature Oriental, Iranian, Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese and Russian typographic posters as well as a number of further references. This isn’t a “best of”, there is no ranking and the collection isn’t supposed to be complete; it’s rather subjective and quite random. All screenshots are clickable; however, links not always lead directly to the corresponding image (e.g. it’s impossible in Flash-based sites) — sometimes you’ll need to search for it.
You may also want to take a look at the article Typography In Motion we’ve published few months ago.
So what can be achieved out of simple letters and symbols? Please be patient, some screenshots are huge.
Breathtaking Typographic Posters
Christina Koehn / University of Washington, USA
Alex Banks / United Kingdom
Emiliano Lionel Suárez / Argentina
Juanma Teixidó / Asunción, Paraguay
Emil Kozak / Spain
Pablo Alfieri / Buenos Aires, Argentina
HeyHo / France
Vincent Bousserez / Paris, France
Drew Kora / Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA
Aron Jancso / Budapest, Hungary
Andre Bergamin / Brazil
Oh Ishi / Siam, Thailand
Alejandro Paul / Buenos Aires, Argentina
mrgraphicsguy / Germany
lee25 / United Kingdom
Shaun Morrison / Brighton, England
25ah / Stockholm, Sweden
Andy Cambiaso / Argentina
Puerto Baires / Buenos Aires, Argentina
Todd Roeth / USA
Piotr Fedorczyk / Florence, Italy
Noel Tanner / Minneapolis, USA
Kate Andrews / London, United Kingdom
Experimental Jetset / Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Lennart Wolfert / Netherlands
Farhad Fozuni / Iran
Yaronimus Maximus / Israel
Bunch / UK
Playful applications for the 55DSL 2007 Christmas instore incentive. Tape and posters were designed and sent to each store where the staff were then encouraged to get creative with what they taped up to win 555 GBP worth of prizes.
Alex Trochut / Spain
Arjo Wiggins Poster
Pixelgarten / Germany
Apirat Infahsaeng / New York
Poster announcing Brian Collins’ lecture Design Changes Everything.
MAISON DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE Création de la nouvelle identité visuelle.
Projet non retenu.
Purple Haze / Germany
Rote Sonne Club (2007). Poster design for a clubnight.
Think Experimental / France
Aaron Pou / USA
Maxime Delporte / France
Job Wouters / Netherlands
In collaboration with Roel Wouters. Printed by Knust.
Folded A3 flyers for Jungstar (formaly known as Zeitgeist) a bimonthly party held at the sugarfactory organised by the MRKMLN-group.
There’s always work in progress / you’re always a work in progress.
Sterk Water / Belgium
Poster made for a expo of a local art school promoting the free grahics and the sculpturing department.
C100 / Germany
A Club Poster from Berlin
Mark Andrew Webber / Falmouth, England
Hanna Czapka / Germany
Bonus
Job Woulters
80 of 500 handdrawn typographic posters by Job Wouters are shown in a 3 minute filmclip by Roel Wouters. The posters promote the students final works at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. The handwriting is… beautiful.
References and Resources
- Oriental Typography Posters
By Malik Anas.
- Iranian Typography Now
- Chinese Typography Pool
- DailyType.ru
A creative project run by several russian type designers. Day by day, they create original typefaces and post their results along with routine.
- Hebrew Typography
Oded Ezer.
- Hebrew Type Flickr Pool
The showcase of Hebrew Typography.
- Japanese Typography Flickr Pool
- Pingmag Typography section
- Best 100 Posters from 2006
- The Pleasures Of The Text Flickr Pool
- We Love Typography Behance Circle
- What is graphic design? Poster Competition: Winners of the competition
- Typotecture: Typography as Architectural Imagery
- In Love With Typography Deviant Reports
Regularly collected by Stefano Picco. - Helvetica Now Poster Contest
- 100 Best Posters
- hands on the poster – a photoset on Flickr
Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine (www.smashingmagazine.com), an online magazine dedicated to designers and developers.
(No votes yet)
Loading ...- 96 Comments
- 1
- 2February 25th, 2008 2:12 am
Thank you for featuring my posters. I’m honored!
- 3February 25th, 2008 2:22 am
Nice list! Also be sure to check the website http://www.aisleone.net/ for many updates about type and posters.
- 4February 25th, 2008 2:32 am
Nice collection! love typography posters…!
- 5February 25th, 2008 2:58 am
Fantastic collection of posters… love this article and site!
Keep up the good work
- 6February 25th, 2008 3:10 am
Great collection. But I am absolutely missing contest winner #3 of veerles Contest!
The contribution of ‘my way home’ fits perfect in this collection.I’d consider to put it also in.
bye, tk
- 7February 25th, 2008 3:20 am
I love thoses pieces! Thanks and Hello to all who create!
- 8February 25th, 2008 3:21 am
A nice and very inspiring collection.
- 9February 25th, 2008 3:41 am
I. love. this. blog.
- 10February 25th, 2008 3:50 am
I have done a post on Poster Design Tips that relates very much to this…
Great list as usual. - 11February 25th, 2008 3:52 am
Wow, how long do you need for your research to find so many great posters?
Thank you - 12February 25th, 2008 4:01 am
Hey Look at the #7th entry.. (Some Black and white stripes) Its repeated twice.. Am I correct ?
And totally inspiring.. Thanks - 13February 25th, 2008 4:11 am
thx 4 feature
meanwhile there is “In love with typography” #26 and #27 out :)
- 14February 25th, 2008 4:11 am
I love typography arts as well. Very nice post :)
- 15February 25th, 2008 4:49 am
Great collection. Here’s a bunch more typography posters that you guys missed:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vccgraphics/sets/72157594204888427/ - 16February 25th, 2008 4:57 am
Typography and grids, when used properly, CAN’T BE BEATEN.
Here are my other 2 submissions for Veerle’s contest
- 17February 25th, 2008 6:09 am
Expanding slightly on comments above: I am both surprised at and disappointed with Smashing for not mentioning the design contest at Veerle’s blog…since it was obviously a source for this article.
- 18February 25th, 2008 6:31 am
Very nice post, one of the best ever. It’s also quite inspirating!
- 19February 25th, 2008 8:33 am
Holy smoking! Thanks smashing. You made my day.
\a/
- 20February 25th, 2008 9:01 am
excellent list dudes, i vote for ” Drew Kora / Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA ” awsome!
- 21February 25th, 2008 10:06 am
what a beauty! :D
- 22February 25th, 2008 10:24 am
@Jon Aston: please take a closer look at the References section. “What is graphic design? Poster Competition” is Veerle’s competition – the link leads directly to Veerle’s Flickr pool.
- 23February 25th, 2008 11:08 am
@Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz: My mistake (and apologies!!). Thanks for pointing it out!
- 24February 25th, 2008 12:14 pm
Ooowwww, nice, nice !!!
- 25February 25th, 2008 12:15 pm
Sweet post! Thanks guys!
- 26February 25th, 2008 12:50 pm
@Jon Aston: sure, no problem. We’ve added the link to Veerle’s post as well to avoid misunterstandings.
- 27February 25th, 2008 1:59 pm
Great article!
- 28February 25th, 2008 2:06 pm
Pure dope.
I can take as much of this as you’ve got…
Thanks
- 29February 25th, 2008 3:08 pm
BEATİFUL, THANKS smashingmagazine
- 30February 25th, 2008 4:03 pm
For the record:
“You can’t design without type: this is an argument for it.” It’s a wallpaper from Veer.
If you love Typo, you have to love veer!
http://www.veer.com - 31February 25th, 2008 4:26 pm
Anyone know where I can get the “You can’t design without type” wallpaper ?? Also there is a great flickr pool about this topic
- 32February 25th, 2008 6:02 pm
That’s really nice post thanks alot Smashing Magazine
- 33February 25th, 2008 9:53 pm
This list isn’t so impressive, especially the posters from Veerle’s contest which was a huge disappointment. I can’t believe the posters that won. A lot of them were very amateurish.
- 34February 25th, 2008 11:00 pm
Can you do a post where I can buy these posters? I would love to buy a few.
- 35February 26th, 2008 3:00 am
as usually SM is always a surprise. Typography is something I want to implement in my works and im trying to learn technichs and develop some ideas and this article have some nice examples to start my research. Thanks SM
- 36February 26th, 2008 4:15 am
Simply amazing selection!
- 37February 26th, 2008 4:33 am
Great posters.
Very funny to see a poster of one of the clubs I’m dancing almost every weekend: Rote Sonne.
Btw: they always have great posters – one of the last promo poster for november hangs in my office :-) - 38February 26th, 2008 8:06 am
Very Nice List! Good projects.
- 39February 26th, 2008 6:45 pm
Man, I’m nuts about that pixelgarten poster. Love all that sketchy style with the people. Simply gorgeous.
Also love the tons of tiny layered text look of andre bergman and andy cambiaso’s posters. Good work.
- 40February 26th, 2008 11:19 pm
Smashing collection … i love the snellen chart one
- 41February 27th, 2008 3:35 am
woooooooow! awesome collection !
- 42February 27th, 2008 4:13 am
Thanks for some inspiration for my 100th blog post
- 43February 27th, 2008 6:42 am
beautiful! simply.
- 44February 27th, 2008 8:30 pm
instead of Mr. Graphics Guy posting a tribute to Scott Hansen/ISO50, you should’ve probably just showcased …
Wonderful work… - 45February 28th, 2008 2:02 pm
Brilliant set of posters! Always good to check here for a bit of inspiration.
One thing I would love to help with inspiration – and thing having issues with at work is creating good looking mailers/posters with a lot of text. The boss likes to write a lot and getting that on a good looking corporate poster is hard! I defo think that would be a good thing to look at in the future!
- 46February 29th, 2008 2:42 am
i m the fresher in website development company. i m there as graphics designer. I want to humbly request these best graphics designers if they can give me how to improve my skills and give me the best lessons and suggestions, so that i will become great in my fiels and i m fond ofaccuring great knowledge. i also want to be loyal to my job. my email address is shabirgilkar@yahoo.co.in
- 47March 3rd, 2008 1:59 am
unique. good inspiration.
- 48March 3rd, 2008 5:50 am
in my personal view typo graph is one of the best things about designs, these designs above are breath taking and shows to creativity – to turn text into something of beauty – i will be referencing this site for creative typograph inspiration. i salute thee
- 49March 3rd, 2008 3:45 pm
I’m in love with the helvetica poster. Could potentially serve as inspiration for a web design.
- 50March 4th, 2008 9:29 am
really nice, i like taped green 5s one and French film festival (calligraphy)
- 51March 5th, 2008 2:26 am
Thanks for such great inspiration by designers all over the world–its a great job done. Please identify the names of the typefaces used. Thanks
- 52March 5th, 2008 10:27 am
WOW!! Really good stuff :)
- 53March 9th, 2008 2:08 pm
I love it! I love it! I love it!
- 54March 10th, 2008 2:07 pm
theres a amazing poster in the artext website called inspiration.
- 55March 15th, 2008 1:58 pm
ohh wow soo many cool posters… great to see my poster with them!!… im going to be doing some more typographic maps….Paris next! just thought i would let people know!!! CHEERs AGAIN!
- 56April 2nd, 2008 8:39 am
its really nice to see wonderful poster design using types..i would like to submit few desing based on Indian languages
- 57April 3rd, 2008 9:14 am
ohh, very good!!!
MRgraphcsgay, you are exelent…. I loved your work
aloooo BRASIL, salve salve a todos DESIGNERS brasieliros!
- 58April 14th, 2008 12:07 pm
its really good…inspiring..and mind opening..gr8
- 59April 15th, 2008 7:13 am
Simply Beautiful.
- 60April 22nd, 2008 12:34 am
Cool… love the huge water colour numbers one..
- 61May 13th, 2008 4:07 pm
The talent of these artists is simply breathtaking.
- 62May 23rd, 2008 4:30 am
Good collection, Excellent work
- 63June 10th, 2008 12:58 pm
Alex Banks need to learn how to render an apostrophe correctly… (’06)
- 64June 13th, 2008 4:07 am
Thanks very much. A real font of inspiration for all of us who are trying to get through this world of design!!
- 65June 17th, 2008 7:09 pm
I have been doing typography for 36 years. I really enjoyed looking at the exquisite posters on this page. Congratulations to all the exhibits.
- 66August 12th, 2008 2:04 pm
Very nice posters… great
- 67September 11th, 2008 10:32 pm
great works using type!!!
brahmandam!!!!
- 68September 22nd, 2008 10:36 pm
They all really very good
- 69October 13th, 2008 2:23 am
i love typography, this posters was good & beautiful. thank you for the trouble.
- 70October 29th, 2008 8:23 am
Awesome! these posters are so cool! ^–^
I love to one that says “Its just dead for me,is love so Technical?” It perfectly describes how im feeling right now… - 71November 4th, 2008 5:25 am
Awesome! these posters are so cool! ^–^
- 72November 4th, 2008 5:27 am
Very nice posters… great
- 73November 26th, 2008 7:43 am
Thanks so much ！
- 74December 10th, 2008 11:03 pm
Help! I can’t breathe!
- 75December 19th, 2008 7:03 pm
wow… nice… good work
- 76December 23rd, 2008 11:08 pm
omg… thats a hell of inspiration. nice job!
- 77January 17th, 2009 12:59 pm
Thankks bro , Perfectt ! o_O xD
- 78February 5th, 2009 12:01 am
really you did a awesome work mate i like them all
- 79February 7th, 2009 7:56 am
hey guys good work! im a typography student struggling to find inspiration and enough imagination to make my work what I want it but this site seems to be setting off a few decent ideas! Keep up the fantastic work!
- 80February 24th, 2009 1:39 pm
this is an awesome website! :))
- 81March 4th, 2009 10:10 pm
breathtaking
- 82March 5th, 2009 3:09 pm
Some great ideas. Thanks for collecting and featuring these.
- 83April 16th, 2009 8:01 pm
Amazing!
- 84April 20th, 2009 8:54 am
realy good one’s!
- 85May 4th, 2009 10:50 am
Wonderful site!
- 86June 27th, 2009 5:45 am
the posters are simply gorgeous!><” love it! u guys r great~
- 87July 15th, 2009 5:01 am
wohoo sweet
does anyone know where to buy such posters?? Would love to see them in my office…
- 88August 3rd, 2009 2:41 am
this collection is really too good and use full…
- 89September 3rd, 2009 7:48 pm
nice web, nice type, nice posters.. very awesome..
- 90September 9th, 2009 6:58 pm
Keep up the good work
- 91September 28th, 2009 2:46 am
Brilliant collection of typography.
- 92September 29th, 2009 8:30 am
My favorite are the three posters by mr. graphics guy.
- 93September 29th, 2009 11:09 am
Nice post… I truly love these laundry-lists of cool work.
Drew Cora’s poster is completely kickass, as well as Juanma Teixidó’s. I’m a sucker for color sometimes. - 94October 21st, 2009 6:41 am
great collection! i liked so much…werever you are!!!!
- 95October 25th, 2009 1:17 am
Typography is the art of arranging, designing and modifying type. Creating a well designed typography poster is no easy task, and takes time
- 96November 7th, 2009 12:32 am
Amazing!
Great collectionThanks so much
- 00
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Nice collection! Some of them are from Veerle’s competition: “What is graphic design”.