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Sexy, Bold And Experimental Typography
May 12th, 2008 in Inspiration | 187 Comments
Sometimes typography is all you need to communicate your ideas effectively. Graphics can support the type or type can support the graphics, but to deliver the message precisely, you need to make sure your type is expressive enough, your design is distinctive enough and the composition is strong enough. 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.
This post showcases over 70 examples of sexy, bold and experimental typography. Some examples are typographic posters, some are typographic illustrations and some are just sketches with type. In any case, you will hopefully find some inspiration for your future works.
Feel free to check out our previous typography-related posts:
- Breathtaking Typographic Posters with over 50 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,
- Typography In Motion presents some excellent examples of typography embedded into movies and videos,
- The Showcase of BIG Typography with over 35 examples of big, “loud” and yet elegant typography in web design.
So what can be achieved out of simple letters and symbols? Please be patient, some screenshots are huge.
Sweet and Cute Type
Sweet Sixteen
Typography with a sweet taste of sugar. A nice composition, an excellent execution. Sometimes not that much is needed to make the type look tasty. The typeface used below is Cutiful.
Dive Deep
Hand lettering by Ray Fenwick, cutting out by Dan Mogford.
Scarlett
An illustration created by Nik Ainley. Notice how well every single letter (e.g. “l” and “s”) fits in the composition.
Newstand Cover for Computer Arts issue 139
Alejandro Paul’s Affair typography from Argentina: typography dominates in the composition, the swirly headline is just breathtaking.
17.06.2007
Created by Michael van Laar using Freebooter Script.
Aphrodisiac Dessert
Dessert type for a dessert announcement.
FitzGerald Album (Extended Play)
Nothing can beat old-style-typography. Nothing.
Rally
Apparently, typography can be used for a number of purposes. Typographical Motorsports: simple yet interesting.
Tina Colada
It is worth a discussion if “overlettering” actually helps to deliver a message, but the type looks nicely. And the choice of colors is impressive.
More ink is coming
Impressive lettering by Ale Paul.
cim_organic
Sunny, flourish motif for a fresh typographic composition. Designed by Ryan Katrina.
Empire
The attention to detail is remarkable. Designed by Theo Aartsma.
Elegant and Sexy Type
Climate Change ‘Co2′ ideas
Simple idea which uses only the power of typography. Impressive posters do not need to be colorful.
Αnapodi Klosti Poster
Poster for a experimental performance installation. The main lettering is based on PF Beau Sans. Unusual: thin font transform into a thin thread.
qp logo
In this logo “q” and “p” belong together. Nice concept, nice colors.
Tony Rohr
Similar idea as in the previous one, but a different execution.
JG3!
Slick and sexy, colorful and strong. Notice how beautifully both letters intersect in the middle of the image.
CMYK Lovers
Well, that’s A LOT of letters. Vibrant colors meet 3D-typography. Available as a desktop wallpaper. Designed by Guilherme Marconi.
Poster in the city of Amsterdam
Dutch graphic design at its best. Interesting typographic construction which captures attention by its structure and attracts by its vibrant colors.
Requiem
Strong, dirty and grungy typography is also possible. Craig Shields manages to get impressive results combining grunge and type.
BBB
Designed by Stefan Lucut. The loog looks very modern and powerful, however, at the first glance it is not clear what the red thread stands for. Nevertheless, very original composition.
Strong and Bold Type
Typography
Nicolas Alexander combines typography and retro. Notice how elegant the line starting in the letter “G” goes through “R”.
2008 Calendar
Expressing feelings via colors and type. A very clean and beautiful design by Jonathan Davies.
Bckyrdflw Promo
Well, this one is hard to overlook. Andrew Dyjak’s poster can be read without vocals vowels. Lovely colors, cropping and, of course, type.
Statistics Table
Strong, bold and extremely expressive. And it is just a table!
The Well of the Saints A1 poster
A1 Graphic poster produced by John McDermott. Simple, strong and sexy. Sometimes two colors and a bold typeface are enough.
Breaks logo
A distinctive treatmeant of letters which perfectly fits to the message a poster wants to convey. Designed by Zoltan Szalay.
Nik Ainley
Nik Ainley strikes again. Lovely typographic work where letters don’t just convey the message, but are also functional: their form suggests the second message which is transported with the artwork.
Benno Wissing
Dutch Typography by Benno Wissing. It looks very modern, but it was created in 1963.
Film Poster
Colorful and distinctive. Each color stands for a different movie which participated in the festival.
Experiments with type
Dog Type
Sometimes typography is used to deliver a message in a quite, well, unusual way.
A Stitch Up - Corktown Tavern - Base
![Beauty of Typography - seis [cartel]](http://78.46.108.98/images/typography-beauty/026.jpg)
Wishes
Unusual type treatment which makes the wishes quite distinctive from the “usual” crowd.
Doblette - Taller Tipografia (uy)
Bold type
These letters are really hard to read. Is it the purpose of typography? Well, it’s definitely an experiment. Cute, fat and bold type in use.
Extraverage x The KDU
Pattern is used to create letters.
Visual Lexicon v 2.1 Metamorphosis
Wim Crouwel: New Alphabet book
Experimental Jetset: SMCS Invitations
Triple O’s
Sometimes type doesn’t look like type at all.
88. Geometric Type
This type is quite freaky. Dutch Graphic Design.
89. YOLO
A (really) striking poster designed by Martin Fewell from Manchester, UK.
100. Best time of my life
Disturbing yet powerful. This poster delivers the message effectively.
Recycle
Usually typography is used as a foundation for symbols. In this artwork it is the other way around. The yellow circle in the middle of the composition may be too striking, but it may be the designer’s intention. Designed by Satoboy.
Chaumont, festival international de l’affiche, version longue - Etienne Mineur archives
Last Click
Colours Clock
Designed with the sole intention of not over complicating the design. Designed by Richard Shed.
Holding type
These flocked magnets looks pretty sweet.
Spaghetti Dinner Poster
Beautiful integration of type into a photo.
Matias Ignacio en crema
Ok, now it’s time for a coffee break.
James (May 12th, 2008, 2:31 am)
This is one of your best type post yet smashing mag! Thank you.
Greg (May 12th, 2008, 3:11 am)
In the Bckyrdflw Promo description you say “vocal” but I think you mean “vowel”.
Will (May 12th, 2008, 3:23 am)
Ahhh, nothing like some typography to get one going on a Monday :D.
Pixelsnobbery (May 12th, 2008, 3:25 am)
Some really great, inspirational typography there! Especially like the simple Ozfam poster.
Link [www.pixelsnobbery.com]
AxE (May 12th, 2008, 3:26 am)
Please, stop to write answers like: “wow! it’s so cool! Thx! ” It’s so stupid.
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (May 12th, 2008, 3:28 am)
@Greg: thanks, you are right. Corrected.
Ben Jacob (May 12th, 2008, 3:30 am)
This a long post.. I suggest you to split into some pages inside the single post.
Rob (May 12th, 2008, 4:07 am)
@Ben: it’s not so hard to scroll down.
Excellent article, though some of the designs are way too cluttered and legibility becomes an issue. In my book that can’t happen in typography, even if it’s experimental.
i5bala.com (May 12th, 2008, 4:08 am)
YOLO was my fav. so touching and striking !
Marc Dandoy (May 12th, 2008, 4:10 am)
Yes, I liked Yolo too. It’s very remarkable.
Gerhard (May 12th, 2008, 4:12 am)
“Dutch Typography by Benno Wissing. It looks very modern, but it was created in 1963″
Something is missing nowadays: swiss design was in fact a reaction against the classic rules… what happens today with all these Helvetica–Frutiger–Müller-Brockmann copycats is terrifying. Knowing the basic principles of design is a must to break them. Remember: using Helvetica doesn’t make you a great designer.
Yours sincerely,
G
Federico (May 12th, 2008, 5:01 am)
look the attractive prices campaign of british airways. It´s a great show about how tipography can do with a good idea behind. Grate post, I luv tipos….
Taylor (May 12th, 2008, 5:18 am)
Absolutely fantastic and inspirational post - one of the best so far!
Vinícius Fragoso (May 12th, 2008, 5:53 am)
The first entry on Strong and Bold Type, the “Good Morning Stranger” one was inspired on a brazilian local novel, I guess, or at least it looks like. I just cant remember the novel’s name, since I was a little boy at the time, but i’ll look for the name with my older friends, and then I post a video or image with the novel’s logo ;D
Joanne (May 12th, 2008, 6:22 am)
This list is incomplete without Si Scott’s work, so here’s his website:
Link [www.siscottstudio.com]
Great list here! Great work smashingmagazine!
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (May 12th, 2008, 6:25 am)
@Joanne: thank you; Si Scott has been featured twice in our previous posts.
sandrups (May 12th, 2008, 6:35 am)
beautiful article
Tephlon (May 12th, 2008, 6:39 am)
You guys should also check out Link [www.alextrochut.com], a Spanish designer. Saw him at Link [www.offf.ws] last week, incredible detail on his typography.
hashir (May 12th, 2008, 6:48 am)
awesome post.. you should get all this in PDF format..
Hango (May 12th, 2008, 6:56 am)
Love ‘em!
Eric Shoemaker (May 12th, 2008, 7:36 am)
Very cool!!
Check out Typography Friday! Link [typographyfriday.com]
jackchen (May 12th, 2008, 7:56 am)
that’s very cool … i like it …!
cemiotika (May 12th, 2008, 8:40 am)
I love MONDAYS
J. Silveira (May 12th, 2008, 9:06 am)
Amazing
TekServer (May 12th, 2008, 9:27 am)
can anyone identify the font in the spaghetti example, good morning stranger and “stay fresh”?
Typography is by far my weakest point!
Ardi (May 12th, 2008, 9:30 am)
Damn meeeeen!!!!!! Nothing is ugly… they’re all beauty. Really inspired me…
Ben (May 12th, 2008, 10:07 am)
Modern experimental typography and you don’t mention Marian Bantjes? Pfft!
bantjes.com
Or even Sagmeister…
What’s going on?!
Ann (May 12th, 2008, 11:08 am)
I agree, Ben. Sagmeister, Bantjes, and Scher are right there.
Piotr (May 12th, 2008, 1:22 pm)
Oh. I love that. A few of them were absolutely brilliant. Extremely inspiring collection. Thanks for that!
Dave (May 12th, 2008, 1:25 pm)
Love it. They are all good pieces of work. I was thinking as I went down how cool it would be to make a color blind test… and there it was half way down. doh!
cammarow (May 12th, 2008, 1:50 pm)
I love this post and I love smashing magazine… The best website of all the Internet !
James (May 12th, 2008, 4:45 pm)
Awesome post but you guys should spell check (I don’t)
juddy (May 12th, 2008, 5:31 pm)
It’s 1978-1982 all over again. Old ideas never die, they just linger in Library back-catalogs until someone digs them up again.
pp (May 12th, 2008, 8:50 pm)
INCREIBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!
Jarrad (May 12th, 2008, 9:05 pm)
Brilliant post, it’s stuff like this that keeps me back again and again. Keep it up lads, love this site!
John B (May 12th, 2008, 9:11 pm)
Very nice selection.
Also try looking at the David Lance Goines collections. I bet you will like his creative use of typography.
Kind Regards
lorbus (May 12th, 2008, 9:18 pm)
100. Best time of my life
If you look at it through a red and blue filter (like the ones found in 3D glasses) you’ll be able to read two different texts!
Lincoln (May 12th, 2008, 9:18 pm)
Actually, those who use Helvetica always strike me as the laziest — default font in Quark Xpress (get off my lawn). Come on, there are far more interesting typefaces out there — let the face die a quiet death. I loathe Helvetica only. Hell, I’ll take a Futura-only ad before anything with straight Helv.
journal.marisaduma.net (May 13th, 2008, 1:18 am)
Amazing! Smashing Magazine’s editorial team is just amazing.
Where did you people find these stuffs!?
Anyways, the Anapodi Klosti poster’s typography looks like the one used for Bjork’s book cover, the book titled Bjork if you’d like to look it up.
PS: Sorry for the URL name. Just gotta do it!, it itches when I don’t. :D
SATOBOY (May 13th, 2008, 2:13 am)
excuse me but the “R” logo RECYCLE it’s my design :)
tnx for the post.
Satoboy
Lord Gyas (May 13th, 2008, 2:25 am)
excuse me but the “R” logo (recycle) is designed by SATOBOY
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (May 13th, 2008, 2:33 am)
@SATOBOY, Lord Gyas: thank you, corrected.
SATOBOY (May 13th, 2008, 2:36 am)
tnx you too!
:D
Fodcj (May 13th, 2008, 3:32 am)
Fantastic article! I love everything about type!
:)
John (May 13th, 2008, 3:53 am)
Superb collection, thanks a lot smashing mag. :)
heres a picture i found yesterday, maybe for the next type collection.
Link [style-force.net]
Network Osaka (May 13th, 2008, 4:12 am)
Hello smashmag…
Thanks for linking me up :-)
I’ve always been a big fan of this blog and it’s an honor to appear in it :-)
Cheers!
Gerry (May 13th, 2008, 5:20 am)
I worked with Link [www.neuarmy.com]who made that CIM logo, he is a very talented graphic artist.
Takahashi (May 13th, 2008, 5:24 am)
I have a question…is typography meant to be downloaded as a font? I would LOVE to download any of these as a font!
Phillip (May 13th, 2008, 5:28 am)
“wow! it’s so cool! Thx! “. It really is inspiring.
MisterFweem (May 13th, 2008, 5:41 am)
Doesn’t it bother you, though, that many of these examples, beautiful as they may be, are nearly unreadable?
Costas / Cubic_ds (May 13th, 2008, 5:51 am)
Thanks a lot Smashing Magazine for linking my works.
@ journal.marisaduma.net : The typography on Bjork’s book is by M/M Paris and is a custom font that looks like a thread. There are many fonts that look like this. On Anapodi Klosti poster ( “klosti” in greek language, means thread) , the outlines of PF BeauSans has been transform to a thread…
Thanks…
Jeff (May 13th, 2008, 6:43 am)
Awesome inspiration! some really insane tyopgraphy work!
Thanks!
Michael Durwin (May 13th, 2008, 7:42 am)
Except in a few cases I wouldn’t call this typography as much as I’d call it illustration. The images are certainly elegant and beautifully composed but it is not necessarily a study in typography because it uses a letter or word.
Wes (May 13th, 2008, 9:02 am)
Does anyone know the font used in Nik Ainley’s typographic piece? He uses it in several pieces, but I can’t seem to figure it out.
nerdski (May 13th, 2008, 9:42 am)
Good stuff!
Indigo (May 13th, 2008, 10:40 am)
This is the best website ever.
Lindsey (May 13th, 2008, 11:34 am)
@AxE - why are you worried about what other people are leaving as comments on a blog you don’t own? I mean really, what are you the freakin’ comment police?
Anyway - What font is that used in the CO2 image?
PoLR (May 13th, 2008, 12:30 pm)
Some fantastic examples in here. I really must experiment more with fonts.
Reginald (May 13th, 2008, 1:03 pm)
You have unveiled some incredible resources in this post. Thank you.
Wes (May 13th, 2008, 4:14 pm)
@Lindsey
That font is Helvetica Neue Thin or Ultra Thin
Anyone want to take a guess on the font in Nik Ainley’s piece?
JKim (May 13th, 2008, 8:10 pm)
beautiful
Skout'star™ (May 14th, 2008, 1:31 am)
beautiful. inspirational. well done. wow.
Stephen Meehan (May 14th, 2008, 3:02 am)
Absolutely amazing - stunning work on show here.
mongrel (May 14th, 2008, 3:36 am)
like wow… it’s sooooooo cool…
Takahashi (May 14th, 2008, 6:19 am)
I have a question…is typography meant to be downloaded as a font? I would LOVE to download any of these as a font!
sorry for the repost…just hoped someone would answer!
Nicolas Alexander (May 14th, 2008, 10:46 am)
Vinícius: I made the goodmorningstranger and didn’t know about such a book. if you can track it and post a link i’d really like to see it ! thanks for your post
Nicolas Alexander (May 14th, 2008, 11:01 am)
@TekServer
The font I used for good morningstranger is originally “avant garde” and I added custom serif to mimic “Lubalin Graph” because lubalin graph with ligatures isn’t avaible as a digital version.
thanks for your comment & thank you smashin mag.
Javi (May 14th, 2008, 12:08 pm)
really cool stuff, but I really miss any typo work from ALEX TROCHUT here!!
Dy (May 15th, 2008, 1:35 am)
this is really great!!
Link [www.behance.net]
Julian Gruber (May 15th, 2008, 4:22 am)
Wow! Another great smashing list, as usual quality equals quantity.
germaine (May 15th, 2008, 5:10 am)
amazing and so graphic article, thanks -_-
celebrity sex scandal pictures video gossip (May 15th, 2008, 7:21 am)
thanxx
Ash (May 15th, 2008, 11:37 pm)
Excellent article ! Thank you !
lydia (May 16th, 2008, 3:05 am)
The first time I find myself so hate English…so many in English for reading~~~without any professional knowledge about website building…
lydia (May 16th, 2008, 3:11 am)
555…pity girl…
Dot Design (May 21st, 2008, 7:23 am)
Some inspiring work here, particularly “Spaghetti Dinner Poster” and “Moctezuma: James Brown” among others. Great collection, cheers Gareth
Anders (May 21st, 2008, 8:43 am)
“Aphrodisiac Dessert - Dessert type for a dessert announcement.” is actually from a Veer slideshow of Alejandro Paul’s lovely Feel Script.
Haris (May 22nd, 2008, 7:28 am)
Smashingmagazine is the best website.
Daniel Gizo (May 26th, 2008, 7:59 pm)
Actually, the Computer Arts 139 Cover was designed by Mopa, a brazilian design studio. The type is Affair from Alejandro Paul, the exquisite argentinian typedesigner from Sudtipos. The “Stay Fresh” is specially designed with unusual ligatures that aren’t in the original open type file. The subtitle is handmade from the Saul Bass style.
Thomas (June 7th, 2008, 6:36 pm)
The red on the bread and butter seems to be the butter on top of the bbb “bread”.
Lea (June 17th, 2008, 3:04 pm)
Thank you for this blog, I’m going to study Design and it comes in very handy.
I’ts inspiring, thank you.
Broody (June 22nd, 2008, 4:26 pm)
Smashing Mag is the best site ever, period. My scope of design is expanded by every single inspiration article I read on here :)
AuntLinda (July 16th, 2008, 4:05 am)
So many beautiful ideas, so little time!
karuppaiyan (July 21st, 2008, 9:25 pm)
hi,
verry nice article
bronson (July 31st, 2008, 9:48 am)
Yeah, this post frigging rocks!
There are some pretty talented people out there -
someall of these kick major butt, but my favourite has to be the stuff that carries with it an old world, vintage flavour; maybe I’m just getting old, but the vintage/retro stuff is really floating my boat at the moment.DRM (August 13th, 2008, 5:27 pm)
I have to agree with most of the posts. This is one of your better posts to-date. Great stuff, keep on scouring.
ibrahim abu touq (October 9th, 2008, 2:09 am)
very nice works, mainly creative
Jim (November 6th, 2008, 2:45 pm)
Amazing & creative
-Jim
wordbywordhut.com
vicky (November 14th, 2008, 11:36 am)
really cool… u guys rock!
Baz (November 20th, 2008, 4:41 am)
You may also want to include the typography work Luca ionescu
found here
Link [www.likemindedstudio.com]