In print design, typography is one of the more crucial aspects. Typography is essential the practice of organizing, arranging, and modifying type. The typography techniques uesed in print has a direct impact on how the reader is able to receive the image. In print, typography doesn’t have to be plain and boring. It can be beautiful, creative, and colorful. There are a number of ways to liven up typography, such as creative and original layouts, using color variations, use of fancy fonts, and much more.
This showcase will focus mostly on the layout and organization schemes. Below are about 40 different typographic layouts used in different fields of print such as brochure design, editorial design, and poster design.
You may be interested in the following related posts:
Creative Print Typography Layouts
Effektive CV/Poster Mailer
Spit Kingdom
Sheridan & Co.
Avant Garde Gothic Typeface Booklet
Akimoto Typeface
NTU Art & Design Prospectus
BABE
Rizzo + Gobart
Mise au point
UsineSonore
Bionic Systems
National Geographic
Colorcubic
Kiosk 37
ALPHA_TXT
Posters by Official Classic
Poster
Stel Christian Cambas Poster
Typography Poster
Beck 8-Bit Variations
Children of the idiom
Commune
Aesthetic Mathematics
What’s the World…
Oscar_Wilde_Retrospective
Play With Colors
Posters by Pablo Alfieri
More Posters by Pablo Alfieri
99 Dingbats
No Lemon Daydream Magazine
Lazydog
Real Dutch Design Books
Macro Micro
Marius Martinussen
DADA Design
Berlin Cafe Posters
Related posts
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Matt Cronin Matt Cronin is an avid graphic designer, web designer/developer, Cocoa programmer, photographer, digital artist, and the like. He also enjoys writing, and does quite a bit of writing for Smashing Magazine. He is currently working on a startup called VAEOU, which will have new services coming soon.
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Max Dominguez
April 21st, 2009 1:24 pmgreat inspiration
Rich
April 21st, 2009 1:26 pmInteresting Stuff, never thought of that before.
yeah
April 21st, 2009 1:30 pmgreat list man…that was impressive. The first one is the best to me…I really love the type/design
now
April 21st, 2009 1:31 pmIm about to format a 40 page product presentation document in indesign/acrobat. Anyone know of any good resources for inspiration on professional (corporate style) typography and layout for such use? This post is good but not what i need for my project. :) Thanks
rex
April 21st, 2009 1:33 pmwonderful set of images. typography rOcKs! i just got a great idea!!! thanks for the inspiration.
Joris_Lucius
April 21st, 2009 1:36 pmWhat a list, very much inspiration…thank you very much!
wa wa wa
April 21st, 2009 1:37 pmwa wa wa wa wa
Mike@ssm
April 21st, 2009 1:39 pmThank you!!! some real Eye candy the Nintendo cartridge cd is amazing.
Lydizzle
April 21st, 2009 1:46 pmGreat! I love this one! Some awesome inspirations in here. hmm.
Jan
April 21st, 2009 1:50 pmThanks for yet another great post. Keep up the good work!
Rowdy
December 20th, 2011 5:55 amThat’s a subtle way of thinking about it.
nnes
April 21st, 2009 2:23 pmSome smashing examples, thanks for this awesome list!
Craig
April 21st, 2009 2:39 pmInteresting, and beautiful, but I wish people would avoid using all capital letters in print media (and digital). The worst sin in typography, IMO. Legibility is far better without it.
Bruno Natal
April 21st, 2009 3:09 pmperfect!
Sergio
April 21st, 2009 3:25 pmIsn’t this beautiful??
thanks!! for posting this… i really love your page…
Okibi
April 21st, 2009 3:32 pmNice post, thank you.
Bert
April 21st, 2009 3:48 pmMeh.
barbarianbob
April 21st, 2009 5:54 pmOkay, while I agree that most of these are fantastic, a few of them have poor readability. That’s rather insane, considering how the text is so large on most of them, yet the contrast and legibility are… not good.
Some of them I had trouble reading. One or two I still cannot decipher.
ardyonline
April 21st, 2009 6:04 pmvery inspiring article…
francisa
April 21st, 2009 6:21 pmthank!
pamchoo
April 21st, 2009 7:17 pmOne or two are great, some have interesting concept but I agree with barbarianbob, the bottom ones are really hard to read… and some concepts are overused.
devpkj
April 21st, 2009 9:18 pmPerfect …!!!!
Keep it up…..
Nitesh
April 21st, 2009 10:20 pm[ Ultimate ]
Assa
April 21st, 2009 10:35 pmSome layouts are really cool…
thanks for sharing
Jaap
April 21st, 2009 10:41 pmImpressed! Keep going on!
Patrik
April 21st, 2009 10:50 pmWonderful post, gave me a lot of inspiration!
Mike
April 21st, 2009 11:28 pmvisual orgasm…
m_dzo
April 21st, 2009 11:35 pmone of the most beautiful post form SM… again, amazing!
anne_nime
April 21st, 2009 11:41 pmGenerally, this is a good post. I’d like to question some of the stuff that are on the board though: while they may look cute on paper, the legibility and message is kind of… well, lost. A number of artworks up there aren’t even legible… and we are talking about PRINT here. Too much flourish, and function is completely out of the picture. So what’s the point of that second poster by Official Classic? Why did they use those cutesy, indistinguishable block letters? Or is making the readers lost the new thing in Print?
Shouldn’t Design be a balance of aesthetic and functionality?
OverZero.it
April 21st, 2009 11:46 pmVery inspiring!
Beautiful post, thank you!
Neeraj Kumar
April 22nd, 2009 12:06 amGreat Post!
BTW can anybody provide some link where I can learn about the anatomy of book cover designing
Fodcj
April 22nd, 2009 12:38 amOne of your best articles to date IMO :)
Great stuff, thanks.
http://www.diecastlovers.com
April 22nd, 2009 12:53 amGreat post,
thank you.
Ps: why don’t you post an inspiring article for a ‘serious’ typography exercise (e.g. health education…)
bryan
April 22nd, 2009 2:03 ami like it ;-)
mr.required
April 22nd, 2009 3:14 amMost of em are sg like, shit onto a pianino and call it art….. ROFL
Quakeulf >:3
April 22nd, 2009 3:19 amActually, I would love to see a post about mundane design and readability here on SM. Would be great for some laughs and lashings of the old ultra-violence. :3
david
April 22nd, 2009 3:33 amthe list is way too long. make a selection first please
r_jake
April 22nd, 2009 3:36 amAll the examples here are very much belonging to a common style. For a much broader source of inspiration try Link
Tom Bradshaw
April 22nd, 2009 3:38 amThanks, some cool typefaces and layouts to experiment with!
John Sommers
April 22nd, 2009 4:06 amWow, excellent resources indeed! Thanks for sharing
Kilian
April 22nd, 2009 4:26 amLots of Beauty :)
RolsRice
April 22nd, 2009 4:43 amyeah! cool designs!
check out my contribution…
http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Interview-with-Thierry-Le-GouAs/116669
stope [CZ]
April 22nd, 2009 6:17 amgosh… some of those graphics are absolutely smashing =)
sn
April 22nd, 2009 6:45 amCapslock is cruise control for…design?
NorthK
April 22nd, 2009 7:09 amIs there a good book someone could recommend on typography for the web?
Thanks
NorthK
Disposable_Hero
April 22nd, 2009 7:45 am…did I see boobs on the “99 Dingbats” one?
Paul
April 22nd, 2009 8:10 amI mean damn, what’s not to love about typography!! Great post! Great inspiration!
Vincent
April 22nd, 2009 8:25 amAgain, an overwhleming wealth of inspiration. I love you ESSEM!
steve
April 22nd, 2009 8:36 amyup, boobies – finally some print stuff! keep it coming
Edward
April 22nd, 2009 9:27 amNice print collection. Some good quality work.
Prashant Poladia
April 22nd, 2009 10:44 aminspired….. salute to your collection.
Predrag Drljaca
April 22nd, 2009 11:27 amExceptional work presented.
Rob Russo
April 22nd, 2009 12:19 pmThis is good stuff.
sage
April 22nd, 2009 1:00 pm“The typography techniques uesed in print has a direct impact … ”
Honestly? Spelling and grammar should be most important; with design impact secondary. =)
jessica
April 22nd, 2009 2:16 pmfantastic.
I am always inspired by print design.
BORABORA
April 22nd, 2009 2:39 pmThanks for featuring my Avant Garde Gothic booklet!
You can see more images on my website : .
Best wishes
BORABORA
zook
April 23rd, 2009 5:53 amNot really a great selection. There’s life beyond full caps sans serif typefaces, although even the best exponents of those styles are missing from this list. Neville Brody? David Carson? Herb Lubalin gets a mention, but only in the context of someone else’s work – let’s see something from the man himself.
This might be the face of the typographical zeitgeist but it’s wide of the mark in terms of being even a basic overview of good print typography.
Claire
April 23rd, 2009 6:58 amGreat article, I love that you put together all the sets too so you could see the typefaces in action rather than just one word examples.
SyeSye
April 23rd, 2009 9:28 amYes, Yes, and yes again!
great selection, with some really great works.
Would love to see more articles like this! Thank you.
adjie
April 23rd, 2009 9:54 pmawesome! This page is really inspire me.
Many thanks!
rehman
April 23rd, 2009 11:22 pmExcellent..Inspirations…!!
pica-ae
April 24th, 2009 1:30 amawesome collection
Mark Taylor
April 24th, 2009 3:05 amGood collection of different styles, also some very cool fonts!
sam_khrap
April 24th, 2009 4:20 amwow this is just an excellent collection and I’m amazed by it. Im loving it
John Briggs
April 24th, 2009 5:06 amthis stuff looks so repetitive. I’m so tired of huge capitalized letters stacked one word on top of another floating over a neon gradients or pics of outer space. People need to quit ripping each other off. For great design that looks unique look at karlssonwilker.
charlie porker
April 24th, 2009 12:53 pmkarlssonwilker’s wack
Elli
April 25th, 2009 3:30 amWhere the hell can you learn to make so wonderful layouts. Did all these designers study it somehow?
nasip
April 27th, 2009 6:14 aminspiring to the bone!
Kash
May 10th, 2009 11:33 pmawesome collection
Mohammad Raihan Mazumder
May 24th, 2009 8:50 pmIts really nice to see as a typoGRAPHY scence..
Mohammad Raihan Mazumder
May 24th, 2009 8:57 pmMarshall
December 21st, 2009 10:35 pmGood collections with new ideas
GREAT
ssk
December 26th, 2009 8:48 amnice
farhan
February 21st, 2010 2:56 ami loved it and i am inspired to do better than what i use to…. thnks :D
Philip
March 9th, 2010 4:04 amWhat the hell is this?
Experimental school work, or ego show? 70% of the staff above are just crap, communication disaster.
Ladd
April 6th, 2010 10:22 amThanks guys! Plenty of rich inspiration here for the masses. That is what Smashing is all about! Some may like, some may not. It’s here to inspire and it works for me. I just finished THE SMASHING BOOK and it was a great overview of potent general design and development knowledge that seems to be overlooked by many. Looking forward to more! Feed me!
cheers,
LG
Mahesh bhatia
May 21st, 2010 4:47 ami love typography, so so sweet ooooooooooooooooooahahah!!!!!!!!! love
Mondo Print
June 22nd, 2010 5:37 pmnice typography!
chromax
July 7th, 2010 2:52 amReadability was/is/will be the most important thing ever!
Most of the prints products here are unusable.
Who else than people in the graphics industry will sit in front of this and try to read the text?
Everybody will give up after 2 sec.
Kevin Burr
February 14th, 2011 2:26 pmGreat collection…thanks for sharing!
Nikolina
July 17th, 2011 3:34 ambrilliant and inspiring!! it`s actually just what i need these days – i`m into textile printing and need to make various designs for my bags…and often don`t know where to start from :)) good luck to everyone doing design
nicanor
July 27th, 2011 1:07 amthis is some amazing brilliant stuff, would really appreciate it if you would provide more tips on grunge designs,
tasha
January 31st, 2012 3:59 pmI think these designs are really inspirational, I like the way the designs play with typography and colour. I really like the way the designs have been printed off to a high quality :)
Valentina
February 11th, 2012 2:36 amThank you Kevin for sharing… I like it!
Graham
March 28th, 2012 11:07 amNice work