Having Fun with Type

While browsing the internet recently, I found some great examples of people having fun with typography. The first is a project called Cardon Copy. It was designer and recent SVA graduate Cardon Webb's personal project in 2009 where he challenged himself 'to explore the power of design and to work with typography'. He works in Queens New York and would go out in the streets and hijack handwritten flyers he found there. They were typical flyers that you would see every day that aren't very eye catching and are often ignored. After taking one of these flyers, he would redesign it in an interesting, primarily typographical way, and then rehang the new poster where the old one was. The project was featured in a number of design blogs, such as idsgn and How, and was also shown at the Type Director's Club in April of 2009. I really loved some of the redesigned posters and thought it was a great challenge to just find ways to have fun with typography and how he never seemed to do the same thing twice. Each poster has a new and unique style to it. You can check out the whole project here and more of Webb's design work at his website.

Another fun piece of typography I found was a book called Hyperactivitypography. It was designed by Studio 3, an in-school design agency at the Westerdals School of Communication in Oslo, Norway staffed by select 3rd year design students. Originally commissioned by Arctic Paper, the book is a collection of fun typographic exercises perfect for beginners or more experienced typographers looking for a review. It was first published in April of this year and accompanied by a book tour to various design school through out the world. The original run sold out, but it's being reprinted this October and will be available through Amazon. You can preview the first few sections online at their website and even print the pages. I really loved the book because it's just visually beautiful with all the vintage illustrations and how packed full of information it is. I also feel like typography can be so overwhelming sometimes with all the rules and details to remember and that this book makes it fun learning the basic concepts. For more details about the book you can visit it's blog and check out more of Studio 3's work at their website.