Express Yourself ~ Designing With Typography

L'Inspiration Script chest by Hooker Furniture

TYPOGRAPHY stems from the Greek words (typos)=form and (graphy)=writing and is the art of arranging type. It includes different size letters, fonts and adjusting the space between letters and pairs of letters. 

In design it relates to graffiti and other expressions of lettering on walls and wall coverings, print on fabrics, directly painted onto furniture, tufted into area rugs or painted on canvas for wall hanging. It's a style that may be trendy, but I hope it's here to stay. I think it adds comfort to a room and of course, personalization to a space.

The "Inspiration Chest" here is offered by Hooker Furniture company, one of my favorites, and has a nice story behind it. Cindy Hall and Erica Wingo, two Hooker Furniture employees, spent hours searching through magazines and shopping boutiques and art galleries internationally to create the Melange Accents Collection for the company. Each unique piece has it's own inspirational story. L'Inspiration Chest is covered with French script describing the nature of the collection, with such descriptive words as "witty, edgy, pretty and bold." See the entire collection at http://www.hookerfurniture.com/

Manuscript rug by Joaquim Ruiz Miller

Talented architect, writer and designer, Joaquim Ruiz Miller has created this rug made of New Zealand wool. Written in Catalan, the inspiration is from a page from a novel that he is currently working on.

Another rug, also inspirational, is a more contemporary version, shown below. It's from Prudelskern. A rose infused and dyed rug, the color and scent is meant to complement words of Shakespeare's Sonnett 54. The letters partially fade and blend into the background, as it's meant to give the illusion of an aged parchment. Very neat!



Shakespeare's Sonnett 54 rug



A true artist and talented decorative painter, Kristin Korjenek will customize inspirational typography for residential or commercial applications based on the mood or theme of that client.

Flourish Decorative Painting inspirational wall typography

Always one of my favs, Etsy, the online artsy site sells these 12" x 16" pillows with a french theme. You can order it at   http://www.reneesfabrics.etsy.com/ as shown below. Other very cool products can also be viewed and purchased on this site.

Etsy's French Script Accent Pillow

I think that it's really interesting that typography traces its origins between 1850 and 1600 BC. The principle was that letters were all identical characters and was realized back in Crete, Greece. Originally, punches and dies used to make seals and currency were used in ancient times and now we are using this concept today to furnish our interiors.

FYGI ( For Your Green Information):  You can go greener with typography and create your own products by using natural fabrics such as hemp, burlap, cotton or linen and stencil onto them using vegetable dyes.

Until next time,

~ Stephanie