When architects and designers want to make a point, they certainly love to spell it out for us. So check out these buildings, statues, and sculptures made from letterforms, from Lettering Large: The Art and Design of Monumental Typography, a new book by Steven Heller and Mirko Ilić.
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Lettering Large: The Art and Design of Monumental Typography
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While carving a sign from a slab of marble or slapping supergraphics on the side of a building is nothing new, a recent boom in techniques like computer-aided milling and large-format printing has aided the ability of artists and designers to see their characters writ large—like, really, really large. The book traces the history of letterforms in the urban landscape, from rune stones to architectural signage to oversized corporate logos to entire buildings made from type, including massive sculptures of laser-cut paper lyrics that float in the wind. Here are 12 projects from the book that caught my eye.
Ogijima's Soul (Ogijima Community Hall),Ogijima, Seto Inland Sea, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, 2010
Artist: Jaume Plensa
Associate architect: Tadashi Saito (VAKA)
Photographer: Laura Medina, Plensa Studio, Barcelona
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A community center in Japan features various characters in Japanese, Hebrew, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Greek, Latin, Korean, and Hindi, among other languages, to evoke the world's diversity and to welcome visitors from any background.
HCYS, Metz, France, 2005
Designer: Tania Mouraud
Photographer: R.mi Villaggi
Materials: Digital print on plastic tarpaulin
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Artist Tania Mouraud creates large, stretched type that is almost impossible to read up close, requiring perspective in more ways than one. This piece in France is inspired by Arnold Shoenberg's musical piece A Survivor from Warsaw, with a phrase meant to provoke turning a blind eye to the world's injustices: "How Can You Sleep."
Comedy Carpet, Blackpool, England, 2008–11
Artist: Gordon Young
Typographer: Why Not Associates.
Photographer: Why Not Associates
Materials: Concrete, Granite
This 7,000 square-foot plaza made from granite and concrete includes jokes, songs, sketches, one-liners, and catchphrases from notable British comedians. A team that included chemists, engineers, and typographers collaborated on the project, which had to be farmed out to several manufacturers. 180,000 granite letters ranging from a few inches to a few feet high were inserted into high-quality concrete panels.
Fukagawa Fudoudo, Tokyo, Japan, 2010-12
