Type That (Literally) Jumps Off the Page

Quite a while back, I heard from somewhere (I believe it was a lecture) about a very unexpected use for typography: chairs. The idea that someone thought about typography as three-dimensional forms was pretty mind-blowing to me... it seems so brilliant and simple to combine letter forms with our physical spaces that that idea has stuck with me ever since.

I found out that there are quite a few different ways to go about it using letter forms as furniture, and people who create these three-dimensional letters also create word-furniture. Tabisso, a French interior-design company, sells their word furniture to designers and companies that want their furniture to say something (sorry for the pun)... even if it's just a Philly-style hello.



I also really liked, however, this recycling of old furniture. It's such a cool idea... though it lacks some of the relevance possibilities for the Tabisso's word furniture, the type completely stands alone whereas Tabisso's stuff tended to need supports for the letterforms. These were actually designed by a Swiss firm called Set 26... (I'd say check out their website, but its all in Swedish... here's the blog I found their stuff at though).




Going back to the idea of functionality, I also really like these two pieces, which seem to combine what Tabisso and Set 26 were thinking: there's use of phrases specific the particular object, but the type also becomes vital to the function of the piece. I found the chair at Curbly blog, and it was designed by a woman named Dianna Durkes --created from IKEA furniture. The dresser was here and made by Wary Myers.





Makes me want to never have any normal furniture!