Typography Part II

The scope of typography goes way beyond choosing font styles and text on graphic designs. Typography has become an art form that can be found in many ads in magazine publications and on TV commercials. Moving text is also used on television to incorporate typography artwork. The TV show, The View, utilizes text to create the globe in their logo and words dance across the screen as they transition between commercials.

Even if it’s just one or two words, creating unique letters to form those words can turn any text into typography artwork.

Here are some examples of fancy text:

Found on www.webdesignledger.com

Found on www.thedesigninspiration.com

Found on www.graphicfetish.com

Found on www.graphicfetish.com

   

Some incredible typography art can also be seen in many advertisements, such as these:

Found on www.worthstar.com

Found on www.typestack.com

  

Found on www.typestack.com

Found on www.designjuices.co.uk

Graphic Designers are using typography more and more to create anything and everything imagineable, using only text to create shapes, objects, and landscapes. 
The following image was a typography art project in my Graphic Design class:

Original Artwork: Shawn Domingues

Portraits can also be created using text to add shading, making the images seem incredibly real and life-like.

The following portraits can be found on www.onextrapixel.com:

 

Tips on Creating Typography Artwork

There are many ways to create typography art using Adobe Illustrator. You can simply use the Type on a Path tool to create steam from a coffee cup:

Original Artwork: Shawn Domingues

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You can also apply various text effects to create fancy text, such as the Offset Path tool, making copies of the text a bit smaller (for highlights) and a bit bigger (for outlines) using different colors for each offset text. You can also use the knife tool to separate the text into two different sections and apply a different color for each section (creating a wave effect like the one below):

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The most important thing for any graphic designer to remember when working with text in Illustrator, is to always Create Outlines for any text used in any design. After creating outlines, the possibilities are endless. You can use the hollow arrow tool to stretch individual anchor points in each letter, or use the solid arrow tool to change the size and placement of the text. 

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Creating Objects using Text

•   Open an image (pic) and use the pen tool to trace the object in the picture, then turn the  image layer off. 
• After your basic shape is formed, create a text box with whatever words you choose, such as the word “butterfly” used repeatedly below. 
• Adjust the Tracking and leading of the text to get the words as close together as possible (to avoid white-space inside the final image). 
• Make the text box much larger than the shape you want it to conform to and Create Outlines for all of the text (use the solid arrow tool to select the text and go to Type Menu, Create Outlines). 
• Make a copy of the image shape and place the text box over the shape layer to make sure the entire shape can be filled with the text. 
• Move the image shape layer on top of the text box and select both layers. 
• Go to the Object Menu and select Clipping Mask – Make to merge the two layers into one containing the text in the shape of your image. 
• You can now change the color of the image, add text around the shape using the Type on Path tool, or use a gradient. 

The final image will look like this:

Magnificent works of art can be created using only text and typography tools. For more examples of typography art go to:  

www.thedesigninspiration.com, www.webdesignledger.com, or www.onextrapixel.com.