7 Striking Works of Typographic Art

Art that’s made out of words has to walk a thin line between simple and serious, drawing many meanings from a few little letters. By changing how the words are presented, they become more than just letters strung together to mean something – now that meaning is amplified to envelope whole concepts and a lot of them. My favorite works poke fun at their lettered, arbitrary existence. The words only mean something because of identities we’ve assigned them, so seeing those identities get turned on their head can be a lot of fun…

 Hint: Hover!

 

1. Kay Rosen, Blurred (2004)

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Blue Dynamic” label=”2″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”‘BLU’ on one side of the wall and ‘RED’ on the other, each is painted in its corresponding color, and the two words meet at the wall’s corner, a purple ‘R’ joining them together in one word.

Two contrasting sides that don’t seem to have anything in common – you can try to mold them into one cohesive thought but then things get blurry.”]

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Source: Art Ruby

 

 

2. Faried Omara, I’m fine and

 

everything’s OK

[zl_mate_code name=”Green Dynamic” label=”4″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”This sidewalk is one thing that does need fixing.

Irony cuts the words down the middle, drawing attention to the fact that mostly this expression is just used as an excuse to be lazy. How broken does something have to be before it’s worth the time it takes to fix?”]

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Source: fairedesign.tumblr.com

 

3. Farhad Moshiri, Life is

 

 Beautiful (2009)

[zl_mate_code name=”Orange Dynamic” label=”3″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”Knives turned into elegant cursive letters adds a teensy bit of discomfort to the words they spell, since someone had to slam all those sharp things through the wall to make it look that way.

It also makes you wonder… how beautiful can life be if the message comes from a violent place?”]

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[/zl_mate_code]

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Source: razorshapes.tumblr.com

 

4. “Looks Conceptual as Fuck”

[zl_mate_code name=”Pink Dynamic” label=”1″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”Instead of giving you something conceptual to look at so you can come to this conclusion on your own, the words let you work backwards, giving you some hilarious final thoughts about an artwork without showing you the actual thing.

The words slingshot you from the beginning of the art viewing process to the end, without ever really having a beginning at all.”]

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Source: cheesekills.tumblr.com

 

5. Jiri Valoch, Little Poem 

[zl_mate_code name=”Green Dynamic” label=”4″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”The only work on a piece of paper, this little poem assigns meaning to representation, only showing the number of letters that the word itself indicates, counting till a word is whole.

Or maybe we’re spelling something else… What do letters mean anyway when they’re all on their own?”]

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Source: blushingcheekymonkey.tumblr.com

 

6. Gardar Eide Einarsson, In

Taxis, On the Phone, In Clubs 

and Bars, At Football Matches,

 At Home With Friends (2013)

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Blue Dynamic” label=”2″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”A warning against sharing information, the work is a declaration for privacy, even when you’re supposed to trust the people you’re with.”]tumblr_mkngabN7wW1rxxf8eo1_500

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Source: Global Art News

 

7. Wayne White, Ain’t Tellin

 

Ain’t Asking

[zl_mate_code name=”Orange Dynamic” label=”3″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”Two sides of the same scene, with words standing tall in the water. The sun shines bright against ‘Ain’t Tellin’ but ‘Ain’t Askin’ casts shadows on the waves.”]

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Source: Minus Manhattan

 

8 Conceptual Photographs With Floating People

It might be the coolest superpower ever, and with photo editing software now it’s possible: people can fly. Only visually unfortunately, not physically, but seeing the image of a person flying makes it seem like it’s that much closer to possible. Maybe someday soon it will be, inventions these days are reaching new levels of amazing – we’re basically able to reconstruct working human limbs now so jetpacks can’t be too far off. But then there would have to be flying legislation and we wouldn’t actually get to use the jetpacks legally till the year 3000.

Hint: hover for descriptions!

 

1. Sky Fall by Evan Borges

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Pink Dynamic” label=”1″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”More floating than flying, he glides eerily over the smooth top of the lake.

He’s in the exact center, and the sky’s clouds and colors are reflected in the lake below, the ripples transforming their shapes into a real kind of impressionism.”]fly7[/zl_mate_code]
Source: galito26.tumblr.com

 

 

2. Away to the Sky by Anka

Zhuravleva

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Orange Dynamic” label=”3″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”Balloons lift a girl from her center, and she’s flying without realizing it; her head falls back and her body is limp in the middle of the sky.

The scene behind her is blurred and faded – not as real as the girl in the plaid skirt who looks like she’s just flown away from the party. “]balloons[/zl_mate_code]
Source: unplu66ed.tumblr.com

 

 

3. Untitled by Agnieszka Sikorska

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Blue Dynamic” label=”2″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”Flying is more like hovering here. A figure dressed all in black hangs a couple feet off the ground, her hair falling forward and tickling the leaves and the dirt.

She looks captive, hands held above her head and feet kicking back, speckled in dirt.”] SONY DSC[/zl_mate_code]

Source: whynotrishu.tumblr.com

 

 

4. Chairway to Heaven by Julia

Anna

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Green Dynamic” label=”4″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”Against a fiery red sky, the girl plays a dangerous game of musical chairs, arms outstretched for balance even though she’s not afraid of falling.

She’s almost halfway to the chair at the other end of the sky.”] fly5[/zl_mate_code]

Source: i-rene.tumblr.com

 

 

5. Leaving the Body by Hands of Skill

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Orange Dynamic” label=”3″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”A man levitates and leans forward, blindfolded and thrust forward by whatever’s in his hands.

A boy sits on the curb and stares up holding his head in his hand, watching the man fly past as if levitation were an ordinary thing.”]fly3 [/zl_mate_code]

Source: myphotologbook.tumblr.com

 

 

6. The Journey by David Shauf

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Pink Dynamic” label=”1″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”She doesn’t have wings but she still looks like a fairy, a girl flying over the sand in the sunlight with her back arched; the petals of her skirt dance in the wind.”]fly8 [/zl_mate_code]

Source: insaneobsession28.tumblr.com

 

 

7. Floating Chair by Hannah

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Blue Dynamic” label=”2″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”She sits in a wooden fold-up chair and both chair and girl fly a few feet above the ground, with tree branches stretching out like spiderwebs behind her.

She looks over the back of the chair and down, surprised at the magic she’s found in the woods.”]fly1 [/zl_mate_code]

Source: tumblropenarts.tumblr.com

 

 

8. Head in the Clouds by Stefano Galeotti

 

[zl_mate_code name=”Green Dynamic” label=”4″ count=”1″ who=”div” text=”Thick wooly clouds hide the girl’s head, but her body stick out of the fluffy ceiling like a stick stuck in the dirt.

Her body’s set against the corner of a room, the line of the wall running down behind her.”]fly4 [/zl_mate_code]

Source: unplu66ed.tumblr.com