Environmental Typography

I’m not 100% sure that this post is exactly what the assignment entails but my camera recently went MIA, which is depressing, and makes it very difficult to load the pictures I took of typography around me. Hopefully my camera is safely sitting in a “lost and found” bin at Johnston Hall because after completely tearing apart my apartment and car it’s nowhere to be found.

I decided to search the Internet for interesting examples of alphabets. I wanted to find things found in nature and the everyday world. The first alphabet I came across was this awesome Google Earth alphabet by Rhett Dashwood.

I love that he used both architecture and land formations to create this alphabet. It’s an interesting mix of manmade and naturally made forms. You can read his quick blog entry about finding these forms at this link  http://rhettdashwood.com.au/16575

I next found a famous alphabet, Kjell Sandved’s Butterfly Alphabet

I find it absolutely amazing that all of these letters and numbers are found on the wings of butterflies. The alphabet has a very organic and painted feeling and if you didn’t know better you would probably assume this was art instead of nature. It’s absolutely stunning. There’s an article about Sandved and his alphabet photography at this link  http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20051116/Feature1.asp

Last I found an alphabet made up by the backs of semi trucks by Eric Tabuchi.

I found it entertaining how simple but ultimately colorful and interesting this alphabet manages to be. This is a good example of everyday typography we take for granted. Many people wouldn’t give a semi truck a second glance but this person saw the uniqueness of each truck. I love that. This alphabet was featured on the website Culture Making. Check out more at this link http://www.culture-making.com/tag/transport