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
amfis
February 25th, 2008 2:05 amNice collection! Some of them are from Veerle’s competition: “What is graphic design”.
Piotr
February 25th, 2008 2:12 amThank you for featuring my posters. I’m honored!
Sander
February 25th, 2008 2:22 amNice list! Also be sure to check the website http://www.aisleone.net/ for many updates about type and posters.
Rolando Bouza
February 25th, 2008 2:32 amNice collection! love typography posters…!
Fodcj
February 25th, 2008 2:58 amFantastic collection of posters… love this article and site!
Keep up the good work
Thomas
February 25th, 2008 3:10 amGreat 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
Adam
February 25th, 2008 3:20 amI love thoses pieces! Thanks and Hello to all who create!
SITS Hannover
February 25th, 2008 3:21 amA nice and very inspiring collection.
Henning
February 25th, 2008 3:41 amI. love. this. blog.
Jacob Cass
February 25th, 2008 3:50 amI have done a post on Poster Design Tips that relates very much to this…
Great list as usual.
wolfgang
February 25th, 2008 3:52 amWow, how long do you need for your research to find so many great posters?
Thank you
Ben Jacob
February 25th, 2008 4:01 amHey Look at the #7th entry.. (Some Black and white stripes) Its repeated twice.. Am I correct ?
And totally inspiring.. Thanks
stefano picco
February 25th, 2008 4:11 amthx 4 feature
meanwhile there is “In love with typography” #26 and #27 out :)
One Winged Angel
February 25th, 2008 4:11 amI love typography arts as well. Very nice post :)
Amanda Kern
February 25th, 2008 4:49 amGreat collection. Here’s a bunch more typography posters that you guys missed:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vccgraphics/sets/72157594204888427/
Juanma Teixidó
February 25th, 2008 4:57 amTypography and grids, when used properly, CAN’T BE BEATEN.
Here are my other 2 submissions for Veerle’s contest
Jon Aston
February 25th, 2008 6:09 amExpanding 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.
Rodrigo
February 25th, 2008 6:31 amVery nice post, one of the best ever. It’s also quite inspirating!
andotyjazz
February 25th, 2008 8:33 amHoly smoking! Thanks smashing. You made my day.
\a/
chazzuka
February 25th, 2008 9:01 amexcellent list dudes, i vote for ” Drew Kora / Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA ” awsome!
gr8pixel
February 25th, 2008 10:06 amwhat a beauty! :D
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
February 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.
Jon Aston
February 25th, 2008 11:08 am@Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz: My mistake (and apologies!!). Thanks for pointing it out!
Eliseu sb
February 25th, 2008 12:14 pmOoowwww, nice, nice !!!
Joseph Lee
February 25th, 2008 12:15 pmSweet post! Thanks guys!
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
February 25th, 2008 12:50 pm@Jon Aston: sure, no problem. We’ve added the link to Veerle’s post as well to avoid misunterstandings.
Zeki Volkan Iscen
February 25th, 2008 1:59 pmGreat article!
Paul D
February 25th, 2008 2:06 pmPure dope.
I can take as much of this as you’ve got…
Thanks
Sesebian
February 25th, 2008 3:08 pmBEATİFUL, THANKS smashingmagazine
Sarah
February 25th, 2008 4:03 pmFor 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
Mirza
February 25th, 2008 4:26 pmAnyone know where I can get the “You can’t design without type” wallpaper ?? Also there is a great flickr pool about this topic
Mohamed Alaa
February 25th, 2008 6:02 pmThat’s really nice post thanks alot Smashing Magazine
Tony
February 25th, 2008 9:53 pmThis 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.
TIM
February 25th, 2008 11:00 pmCan you do a post where I can buy these posters? I would love to buy a few.
João Cunha
February 26th, 2008 3:00 amas 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
Fubiz
February 26th, 2008 4:15 amSimply amazing selection!
Daniel
February 26th, 2008 4:33 amGreat 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 :-)
Elson Di Nardo
February 26th, 2008 8:06 amVery Nice List! Good projects.
drew kora
February 26th, 2008 6:45 pmMan, 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.
Syed Balkhi
February 26th, 2008 11:19 pmSmashing collection … i love the snellen chart one
Sandeep Jangir
February 27th, 2008 3:35 amwoooooooow! awesome collection !
John B
February 27th, 2008 4:13 amThanks for some inspiration for my 100th blog post
Badi Dang
February 27th, 2008 6:42 ambeautiful! simply.
ryan
February 27th, 2008 8:30 pminstead of Mr. Graphics Guy posting a tribute to Scott Hansen/ISO50, you should’ve probably just showcased …
Wonderful work…
Andrew Nock
February 28th, 2008 2:02 pmBrilliant 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!
ShabirGilkar
February 29th, 2008 2:42 ami 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
Himanshu Kapoor
March 3rd, 2008 1:59 amunique. good inspiration.
web design in cheltenham
March 3rd, 2008 5:50 amin 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
Kristian
March 3rd, 2008 3:45 pmI’m in love with the helvetica poster. Could potentially serve as inspiration for a web design.
Neha Bahuguna
March 4th, 2008 9:29 amreally nice, i like taped green 5s one and French film festival (calligraphy)
Justus
March 5th, 2008 2:26 amThanks for such great inspiration by designers all over the world–its a great job done. Please identify the names of the typefaces used. Thanks
Robert
March 5th, 2008 10:27 amWOW!! Really good stuff :)
andotyjazz
March 9th, 2008 2:08 pmI love it! I love it! I love it!
michael
March 10th, 2008 2:07 pmtheres a amazing poster in the artext website called inspiration.
Mark Webber
March 15th, 2008 1:58 pmohh 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!
Manoj.G.Nath
April 2nd, 2008 8:39 amits really nice to see wonderful poster design using types..i would like to submit few desing based on Indian languages
mrG
April 3rd, 2008 9:14 amohh, very good!!!
MRgraphcsgay, you are exelent…. I loved your work
aloooo BRASIL, salve salve a todos DESIGNERS brasieliros!
tenzin
April 14th, 2008 12:07 pmits really good…inspiring..and mind opening..gr8
K.Brown
April 15th, 2008 7:13 amSimply Beautiful.
Dave
April 22nd, 2008 12:34 amCool… love the huge water colour numbers one..
Ronzan
May 13th, 2008 4:07 pmThe talent of these artists is simply breathtaking.
Navin
May 23rd, 2008 4:30 amGood collection, Excellent work
andrew
June 10th, 2008 12:58 pmAlex Banks need to learn how to render an apostrophe correctly… (’06)
Naranjito82
June 13th, 2008 4:07 amThanks very much. A real font of inspiration for all of us who are trying to get through this world of design!!
Walter Walraven
June 17th, 2008 7:09 pmI have been doing typography for 36 years. I really enjoyed looking at the exquisite posters on this page. Congratulations to all the exhibits.
maltin75
August 12th, 2008 2:04 pmVery nice posters… great
chary
September 11th, 2008 10:32 pmgreat works using type!!!
brahmandam!!!!
Nipuran
September 22nd, 2008 10:36 pmThey all really very good
sheyda
October 13th, 2008 2:23 ami love typography, this posters was good & beautiful. thank you for the trouble.
amaya
October 29th, 2008 8:23 amAwesome! 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…
(oklala)
November 4th, 2008 5:25 amAwesome! these posters are so cool! ^–^
游商贸
November 4th, 2008 5:27 amVery nice posters… great
Tours.z
November 26th, 2008 7:43 amThanks so much ！
Norb
December 10th, 2008 11:03 pmHelp! I can’t breathe!
Rakhmat
December 19th, 2008 7:03 pmwow… nice… good work
Hosni Rachmani
December 23rd, 2008 11:08 pmomg… thats a hell of inspiration. nice job!
Hulusi
January 17th, 2009 12:59 pmThankks bro , Perfectt ! o_O xD
ram
February 5th, 2009 12:01 amreally you did a awesome work mate i like them all
nuca chic
February 7th, 2009 7:56 amhey 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!
amanda
February 24th, 2009 1:39 pmthis is an awesome website! :))
Houssam Zein
March 4th, 2009 10:10 pmbreathtaking
Burt
March 5th, 2009 3:09 pmSome great ideas. Thanks for collecting and featuring these.
francisa
April 16th, 2009 8:01 pmAmazing!
I
April 20th, 2009 8:54 amrealy good one’s!
david holzman
May 4th, 2009 10:50 amWonderful site!
clover
June 27th, 2009 5:45 amthe posters are simply gorgeous!><” love it! u guys r great~
sven
July 15th, 2009 5:01 amwohoo sweet
does anyone know where to buy such posters?? Would love to see them in my office…
Narinder Singh Fatehgarh Sahib
August 3rd, 2009 2:41 amthis collection is really too good and use full…
im on cloaking
September 3rd, 2009 7:48 pmnice web, nice type, nice posters.. very awesome..
Kelly
September 9th, 2009 6:58 pmKeep up the good work
Kate
September 28th, 2009 2:46 amBrilliant collection of typography.
Ruben Nuñez
September 29th, 2009 8:30 amMy favorite are the three posters by mr. graphics guy.
Rovettidesign
September 29th, 2009 11:09 amNice 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.
Selene
October 21st, 2009 6:41 amgreat collection! i liked so much…werever you are!!!!
dihan
October 25th, 2009 1:17 amTypography is the art of arranging, designing and modifying type. Creating a well designed typography poster is no easy task, and takes time
Egypt Web Solutions
November 7th, 2009 12:32 amAmazing!
Great collection
Thanks so much
Joanna
February 27th, 2010 5:15 amGood job! Im quite surprised what you’ve done with type on those posters! Nice piece of art:)
Beth
March 5th, 2010 9:25 amThis posters are very helpful-inspiring ones.
Can anyone tell me what is the font used in the Alex Banks blue poster?
ejilie
March 23rd, 2010 6:57 ami like pink leaking pussies:)
elektroniczny papieros
March 27th, 2010 5:39 pmInteresting post i totally agree with the other comments. Keep us posting