What the Helvetica!

Text and typography are ubiquitous in the public realm. Signage, directions, slogans, graffiti… but recently I’ve been noticing an explosion of text and typographical art both online and on the ground – from slogan tee’s to a cursory glance over at fffound – seems like everyone is text obsessed.



The 2007 Helvetica film, “a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture… looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which recently celebrated its 50th birthday)”.



On the streets on London, Eines’ giant lettering provides captions to places and experiences while his rollerdoor series provided the backdrop for the recent Alphabeat launch.

In another recent musical/typographic collaboration, Evan Roth has created a terrific textual video feast for the new Jay Z/Kanye/Santo Gold video Brooklyn We Go Hard for (Red)Wire.



Niels Meulman’s work with Caligrafitti garnered him a solo show in 2007 and his stylish work is popping up more and more frequently.


In a beautiful and poetic intervention, London based artist and illustrator Anna Garforth is experimenting in Moss Graffiti – Growing words on wisdom on the walls of the city. Instructions available here.