The art of Calligraffiti

Posted on January 29th, 2009 by steve

The work of Niels Shoe Meulman, via Some Type of Wonderful

This comes up a lot in my type classes. Urban lettering – graffiti – is often practiced by students in my typography courses. The work is typically great, however, where things tend to fall apart is when I’m teaching traditional form, such as script or italic.

As one student put it, “in this class I learned not to be gangsta . . . . ”

There’s a time and a place.

So I actually consider urban lettering to be an advanced form of type; an evolution from forms we’ve been using for hundreds of years into something personal, different.

Which is nothing new: our lowercase alphabet evolved thru what was basically personal expression in lettering. And it makes sense that our letterforms will continue to evolve.

In that, I ran across this post today in the Upscale Typography blog. It’s about the work of Niels Shoe Meulman, who practices Calligraffiti: traditional lettering mixed with urban style.

Click on the image for a video and more info:

Then go look at Daid Daragones’ work. It’s also just as cool (also click image):

tags: art, cool finds, education, originally posted on my myspace blog, thoughts, typography // 6 comments . . .

6 Responses to “The art of Calligraffiti”

ken magri // Aug 31, 2009 at 10:04 am

Create a font in light graffiti and I’ll hail you as a genius.

For you taggers out there, glass cutter and acid drip tagging is so yesterday. Light is the future of tagging.
steve // Aug 31, 2009 at 2:22 pm

Done:

http://emigre.com/EF.php?fid=108

Motion was released by Emigre in 1992. :)
ken magri // Oct 8, 2009 at 2:34 pm

No, no, no, I mean made out of light, against a dark background, even if it has little practical application for graphic design.
steve // Oct 8, 2009 at 2:42 pm

Everything has practical application for graphic design. It just has to communicate, of course. :)

Look at the top left poster by Josef Müller-Brockmann. He created the light using a flashlight, then overexposed the image – then added type on top:

http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2007/04/03/posters-by-josef-muller-brockmann/
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