Alphabetic Inspiration: A-Z Experiments with Letters, Hand-Crafted Type, and More

This inspirational post is all about creating non-traditional type, letters, and alphabets. Some of these are made to into functional fonts and others serve as realized concepts. Consider doing some experiments with photographing objects made into full alphabets, hand crafting letters, working with 3D, trying unusual mediums, and more. Construct an image based font you can use in Photoshop, build your first pictorial font, or just have fun hand crafting some letters.

This Post is Day 4 of our Illustrative Lettering Session. Creative Sessions

Illustrate the Alphabet Project

For those of you interested in showing off your own illustrated alphabets and letters, jump over to this session’s group project Illustrate the Alphabet where you can post an image of your letter creations and get some feedback on your work.

Object Based Letters and Fonts

There are so many real world objects one can collect and use as the basis for a font. Many of these are collections assembled here into letters, whether it’s vegetables, metal constructions, ties, iPhones, or any other object. Set up a photo shoot in your spare room and make a unique image based font.

5-A-Day Type, by Jimmy Smith

PillsType, by Vladimir Koncar

HAARSPAN_GE, by Maude P. Lescarbeau

Tie-pography, by Ed Nacional

Mech type, by Sebastian Gagin

Paper font, by Jozef Ondrík

Fuzzy – Font, by Font Soup

Splinter: 3D Typeface, by Arslan Shahid

iPhone Font, by urikane parker

Rock Around the Clock, by DASE Roman Sherbakov

emotional book, by ShanSan Art&Design

Made By – Awareness campaign, by Dolly Rogers

Multisensory Typography, by Alan Murphy

Hand-Crafted Letters and Alphabets

Wheather it’s drawn, painted, carved, or in one case cut up potatoes used to make letters. The hand crafted feel is prevalent in the alphabets below. From watercolor to calligraphy their are a plethora of mediums and disciplines to choose from when creating unique letters.

Potato Font, Sofie Platou

Watercolor Typography, Sasha Prood

Deconstructive Typography, Alper YILDIRIM

I used to Bitch about my shoes until…, Bruno Santinho

Diploma project1 2005-2006, Balázs Szabó

Blue Plastic Cup Font | my experimental fonts, Sveta Sebyakina

Tring Type, Rheannon Cummins

INK & SIMMETRY :: Tipography, María LaMuy

Alphabet Studies, Michael Zeyda

Photographic, Image Based, and Pictorial Letters

The dominant element that makes up these letters below are either photographs or drawn letters made with recognizable images in them. Some are shot from satellites, others are cut up images that are then reconstructed into alphabets. Photography is a medium well suited for those looking to capture unique lettering to use in Photoshop illustrations. Pictorial based fonts are often drawn then vectorized in the construction process, and there are a few of those shown here as well.

We Are Animals Type, POGO

Google Earth Alphabet, Vladimir Zivkovic

Photographic light capture typography, by Chris Page

Typography experiments, Reack

Typography – Creeps Deco Bold, Moa Nordahl

Bound Type, Gatis Cirulis

Keeparty, by Irena Zablotska, Eugene Rudyy, and Keepa

Sequences, Jónas Valtýsson

Experimental Letters and Fonts

There are a million and one ways one can create letters. The inspirational projects below are just a handful of additional alphabet experiments in effects, 3D, and even motion in the first example.

Type Experiments by Roy Eventov

3D typeface, by Jarrik Muller

Alphabet, by Jan Vitásek

Misunderstood, by Adeliya Akhmerova

MEA BODONI, by Jorge Mendez

Type Experiment, by Oleg Portnoy

Title, by Artist

The Roommates, by Giampiero Quaini

Hand Made Fonts

There are some that have taken image based and experimental fonts to a professional level. If your looking for a high end experimental type foundry, then check out Hand Made Fonts. They have a ridiculous amount of amazing image based fonts, over two hundred of them in high resolution. Some are created from 3D, others from images of light in motion, earthly elements, and various objects. Here are just a handful of jaw-dropping letters they’ve constructed.