Calligram Designers

A calligram homage to Steve Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:17:00 +0000

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Calligram design by Dylan Roscover

Steve,

here is a calligram for you made with the words of your inventions, visions and inspirational thoughts.

With sincere love and gratitude from all of us designers.

A tribute to women

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:02:00 +0000

Today, March 8th 2011, is the centenary celebration of the International Women's Day (1911-2011).

We honor this special day with a gallery of calligrams where the woman, her beauty, strength, passion and force of nature are the main subjects.

Enjoy!

Motherhood and pregnancy

Joni James

Donna Summer

Ben Duarri Screen Prince

Oh, Julie

(detail of the poster for the theatrical show "Il Blues di Malaussene")

Laura Ruggeri

2010 Summer sale season campaign
La Rinascente

Calligram portrait
Leslie Nichols

"Go out"
Advertisement for Woman's Day Magazine, 1953. All rights reserved.
Federico Gene

Advertising poster (70s)
Vichy Water

Advertising poster (60s)
Lempereur

Funny Girl - movie poster (60s)

Have a wonderful trip in 2011!

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 10:50:00 +0000

It was a joy receiving this SMS for best wishes in 2011 from a person who doesn't even know I love calligrams!

And I was surprised to see how the complete calligram of the boat is viewable in my old cellular with a little tiny screen (can you see the scratches?!).

The rest of the message was:

Boarding date: 2011

Destination: Happiness

Luggage: Health, Love and Harmony

Have a wonderful trip!

Very charming best wishes calligram, don't you think? ;-)

Maybe on top of the boat instead of the two L's (in lower case) the artist could put two 1's and the calligram best wishes boat would become even more appropriate for the 2011 best wishes.

We can also call this form of calligram Ascii Art: "a technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable (from a total of 128) characters defined by the ASCII Standard...", says Wikipedia.

Calligrams for sale

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:27:00 +0000

See how curvaceous body text is used for these calligrams featured on the tags of the 2010 Summer collection at la Rinascente in Milan, Italy!

Maybe it's becuase they follow very curvaceous feminine bodies?

Maybe it's becuase they follow the 60s' fashion trend for the 2010 Summer?

No matter, the result is very appealing and catchy.

It's always very inspiring to see how the visual communication technique of calligrams is used more frequently for business and marketing.

PS
"sconto" in Italian means "discount"
and "saldi" means "sale"

Time to go... eco!

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 09:13:00 +0000

Carpisa Summer 2010 collection chose to put a calligram in the shape of a tree on its new line Recycled.

In the calligram you can read words like love, nature, recycling, bottle, planet, ecology, bag etc. Carpisa took these words seriously and decided to defend the environment choosing tyvek as a material for its line Recycled.

Tyvek is in fact a fiber obtained by recycled bottles made of PET. It's a breathable membrane without toxic substances and completely recyclable as well.

Have a wonderful trip with your Carpisa Recycled suitcase and... show off your calligram recycled bag!

Interactive calligram

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 09:24:00 +0000

by Rick Ligas

I must confess that I would not ordinarily think of a calligram in terms of search engine results. Laura Ruggeri however would. In fact figuring out how a calligram could effect search engine results was part of Laura's thinking when she set about designing a calligram to celebrate her (first) 25 years as a graphic designer and I am happy that she involved me.

Laura had the idea to create a "25th anniversary" calligram and post it as the home page of her website. At first it sounded straightforward: a block of text describing her projects would spell out the numbers "25" in color, but Laura wanted it to be more than that. In addition to the "25" calligram she also wanted the individual words to be links that showed corresponding examples from her portfolio - and the words would be something that she hoped the search engines would take note of, after all, she intends to be an active graphic designer for another 25 years.

So, with this specification she came to me and asked, "Can I create a square, fill it with text, colorize some of the words to create a 2 and 5 then add links here and there and have them show portfolio images when visitors roll over them? And do it in html and css and have that work in all the browsers?"

Well, I like a challenge so I said, "Ahhh, sure." It took a bit of work in HTML/CSS/JavaScript but the results are what I believe to be the first ever in the world interactive calligram, a calligram that responds to you hovering your mouse over it.

Give it a try on her home page: www.LauraRuggeri.com

There were a number of technical challenges to overcome, as there always are in HTML/CSS/JavaScript. For anyone interested in how we did it just view the page source. All the necessary HTML/CSS/JavaScript is contained in the page. We were able to make it work in recent versions of all the major browsers except FireFox on the Mac. And for that I created a special exception in the JavaScript.

Congratulations to Laura for her first 25 years of design and also for creating what seems to be the first ever interactive calligram.

Rick Ligas

LR Communication Design

Six-legged dog calligram

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 11:34:00 +0000

Eni transformed its famous and historic six-legged dog logo into a calligram advertising its "Master in Energy, Environmental Management and Economics" program at Eni Corporate University.

The audience for this calligram is young, intelligent, creative, sensitive... students from universities called to be trained in strategic planning, business analysis, relationships with regulatory authorities, etc. in the specific context of energy and environment.

The calligram is formed by hand-written words recalling the sixties.

The six legs say (from left to right):

internazionalità (internationality)

ricerca (research)

cultura (culture)

rispetto (respect)

formazione (education)

sviluppo (development)

The main part of the body of the dog is taken by the name of the company's educational facility "ENI CORPORATE UNIVERSITY" (notice the capitalization). The head is the company's name, "eni" while "energia" (energy) is reserved for the red spit flame.

I was able to take a quick screen shot of the animated Eni online campaign featured on a side bar of a national newspaper so I don't know who created the calligram.

Below the six-legged dog there is like the artist's signature, but because of the low quality web resolution the name it's not legible.

If you have more information, please, make a comment to this post, it will be very much appreciated.

Calligrams for a calm like nothing else

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:27:00 +0000

by Joni James

I started my journey in calligraphy when I was in my early 20's and living in Alaska. Often asked to make name place cards or inspirational quotes for people, I began taking classes when I returned to the Seattle area in 1984. I was always fascinated with calligrams but never really made any until this year. One of my favorite artists is Picasso, so I was thrilled when I did some searching for calligram information and discovered that Guillaume Apollinaire was a friend of his!

For me, more then any other art form, making these calligrams gives me a calm like nothing else. I can feel the rhythm of the words as I create and the white space tells me what to do next. I'm so thankful to find other calligram artists! It's a beautifully unique form of art and can be used in so many ways!

1932 Ford Coupe Calligram

This was made especially for my uncle and I sent it to him as a surprise recently. He was thrilled!

Motherhood and Pregnancy Calligram

This was a custom order for a client in New Jersey for his expecting wife. Such a great way to document a special time in someone's life.

Electric Guitar Calligram

Being a great Jimi Hendrix fan, I felt inspired to create this calligram in the shape of a Fender Stratocaster. It was also for a gift for a friend.

´¨)
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´
(Joni James' signature)

Find more calligrams by Joni James at

- Art by Joni James

- Joni James Gallery on Etsy.com

A 100% degradable calligram

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:45:00 +0000

This is a very beautiful calligram that visually carries the meaning of a degradable bag.

One of the seven phrases reads:

- Si degrada rapidamente con il calore (It degrades rapidly with heat),

and another:

- Senza rilasciare sostanze dannose per l'ambiente (Without releasing dangerous material in the environment).

The visual analogy implies that the bag is degradable with a light breath of air.

Thanks to Pharma Bag for its sensitivity to the environment and its choice of a calligram design to enhance their eco-friendly products.

2010 calligram greeting

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:16:00 +0000

Here is a 2010 calligram greeting created with TypeDrawing (iPod Touch) by Laura Ruggeri for the design firm LR Communication Design's corporate greeting.

Laura saw two smiley eyes and one nose in 2010 and she added a happy smile with the message "let's keep smiling" for the new year.

2010 calligram made with kids and hope

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:03:00 +0000

"May the new year bring us more love, togetherness and a nourishing light in our hearts" is the message I "heard" in my heart looking at this picture.

A group of children, ice skaters, arrange themselves to form the number 2010 to welcome the new year at the Ice Skating Carnival in Shimla, India.

(AP/Press Association Images)

Typeface Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:09:00 +0000

by Leslie Nichols

Experimenting with text and image has become endless source of ideas and inspiration central to my studio practice.

Letterforms create both spatial and literary passages, which provide a visual texture that is exciting and sometimes challenging to work with.

It has been a natural evolution to use writing in my visual work. Informal sketches while doodling or writing letters to friends were my first calligrams. I began incorporating text in my fine art portraiture when I discovered a typewriter was an exciting image making tool.

Experiencing the beauty and history of the English landscape first hand inspired my current paintings and prints. We lived at Harlaxton Manor in rural England for four months while my husband was a Visiting Professor at Harlaxton College. In these landscapes human presence is presented with text rather than by a plume of smoke, a village or man with cart.

View more about Leslie Nichols
and her work at

www.NicholsStudio.com

www.NicholsStudio.blogspot.com

Visual words for interiors

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:40:00 +0000

"ModernMantra is a series of 18 "text drawings" made in Indian ink on white paper. In a somewhat schematic fashion they portray sterile and depopulated interiors, often simply but properly furnished. One does not have to get very close to them to see that the drawings are really calligrammes, that the interiors are drawn with words that simultaneously describe what they depict."

says Kim West in his text "The Mutant Nerd" in the catalog ModernMantra produced for the exhibition at Borås Konstmuseum (Sweden) in 2006.

Thomas Broomé is the artist of these calligram interiors ModernMantra.

He is a contemporary artist born in Malmö (Sweden) in 1971.

View the calligrams of ModernMantra and seven new addition just presented in an exhibition at the Galeri Magnus Karlsson in Stockholm.

A bag made by words

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:55:00 +0000

This is a plastic bag that "carries" a very meaningful statement.

I think this design could be included in the "Good Work Project" where good work happens when excellent and ethic meet.

But so far it's included in the book New Packaging Design by Janice Kirkpatrick that features over 80 packaging designs from all over the world.

Images of YOU

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:11:00 +0000

Here is another example of images as letterforms.

The letters Y, O, and U, are formed by images of YOU.

This is a screen shot I took from an online ad. It was late in the night and I did not notice from and by whom it was created. Maybe Facebook? Vodafone? Please, if you know more details, write a comment below, I will appreciate it.

I can recall that you could roll over on the single image and a little pop-up opened to show the name and more details of the person.

In this blog you can find other examples of images as letterforms.

Let's notice what they have in common:

- the letterforms are formed by the object or meaning of the word itself.

In this case the word YOU is formed by individual "you-s".

Joni Mitchell

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:55:00 +0000

by Ben Duarri-Screen Prince

Joni Mitchell was the first portrait of a female I attempted, shortly after discovering the pointed pen nib used for copperplate and flourishing. Copperplate became the modern hand at the end of the 19th century and has since become a favorite for popular sign-writing and commercial graphics. A delicate and smooth flowing hand, it can be written quickly using one continuous line [unlike gothic script] and can be dressed down to a basic joined up writing or dressed up accentuating the loops and curves and because of the nature of the nib, when pressure is added, the line widens adding curve and sensuality to the words.

These words, from A Case Of You on her hit album Blue, draws from the metaphor of her lover being like fine wine, “I could drink a case of you and I would still be on my feet”.

However the song is not just a compliment, there is a sense of sadness, a splitting and ending of a relationship and the drinking in bars to numb the hurt that comes with it.

Joni Mitchell
is part of the The Royalty Series
by Ben Duarri-Screen Prince

* Screen Prince calligram art prints and posters
are available now at artrepublic.com
or contact the artist directly at
thescreenprince(at)hotmail(dot)com

A calligram with... touch!

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:39:00 +0000

Type your word, draw your picture and get a calligram in few seconds with TypeDrawing with just a touch. It is so easy and fun!

TypeDrawing is an application for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Like calligrams, drawing with letters is what the application is all about.

I was amazed the first time I tried it on my husband's iPod Touch!

- I typed the sentence, Everything is all right, right now.

- I chose a white background paper

- I selected the font style, its size, color and opacity

- and then just let the intuition flow and drew a vase of flowers, just with my index finger!

Then

- I saved it in an iPhoto Album

- went into iPhoto and sent it directly to my husband as a sign of gratitude for introducing to me such an interesting and fun application.

And all within few minutes.

On Flickr there is a TypeDrawing Group Pool and it's clear how many people are enjoying and using their creativity with this tool.

I am exploring it daily and I am finding it truly amazing. It allows an entirely new way to draw, doodle and create calligrams. Choosing different opacities you can draw chiaroscuro and being careful with the speed of your finger you can even draw 3D effects.

You can easily and quickly create images, frames, letterforms for invitation cards, postcards, posters, etc. or just simply use it as a tool for relaxation allowing your finger to draw and flow along with your intuition.

Oh, and you can even draw on a background picture!

A few samples from my husband's exploration:

TypeDrawing, v1.2.1

Design by Hansol Huh

Released July 2009

Available on iTunes Store for $1.99

Summertime

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:47:00 +0000

"Summertime

and the livin' is easy

fish are jumpin

and the cotton is high... "

This animated calligram designed by Laura Ruggeri seems to recall the song of George Gershwin.

It's an example using UNDULATOR, a LiveFont for the LiveType application produced by Screen Caffeine.

Free your mind

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:41:00 +0000

by Rick Ligas

Some of us believe that the only real revolution is the personal revolution and that the only peace that exists in the world is our own internal peace of mind and heart. This calligram, titled Free your mind, by Laura Ruggeri, shows that belief in a clear and subtly powerful way.

Looking at a world that seems so unpeaceful (even if, on any given day, there are billions more peaceful people than non peaceful people) we are reminded that peace starts within each of us and flows out to our family, friends and beyond. It doesn't exist anywhere else.

This lovely calligram quietly reminds us that there is nothing mysterious or difficult to understand about world peace. It reminds us that world peace is simply our individual peace of mind and heart naturally projected into the world from our daily actions. If we want a peaceful world we have the responsibility to become and remain peaceful individuals.

"Free your mind instead" comes from the lyrics of Revolution written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in 1968.

Free your mind instead is one of the most popular calligrams in the world. Just try to search for "calligrams" in Google and you will see.

Rick Ligas

web application interface designer and artist

Letterforms made by STUFF

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:47:00 +0000

The word STUFF is part of the logo-title designed by Ruben DeLuna for the very succeful 20-minute documentary THE STORY OF STUFF with Annie Leonard.

"The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever." says Annie.

As you can see the letterforms are made by stuff that everyday we consciously or unconsciously buy, collect, store-and-forget-we-have, stuffing our environment and, most importantly, stuffing our mind.

In the yoga tradition the mind is called "citta vrtti" translated in english as "the mind stuff".

Stuff that comes from the past and stuff that we desire in the future could be objects, memories and emotions that in some way stuff our lives.

Try to open your closet.

Can you find something you don't need? Something that you even forgot you have and can live without anyway? And if you find it can you get rid of it?

Now close your eyes and be aware of your thoughts and emotions.

Can you find a thought that is cluttering your mind? Can you find an emotion that is stuffing your heart? And if you find it can you just let it go?

Less stuff could lead us to a simpler life, lighter mind and a clearer perception... and a clearer perception will guide us towards a more succeful life.

Let's unstuff our lives and minds. And let's keep them unstuffed as much as we can.

A Summer of virtues

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:24:00 +0000

a yoga calligram card by Laura Ruggeri

From the depth of my heart I wish you a Summer full of:

cheerfulness

compassion

courage

determination

friendliness

generosity

love

openness

peacefulness

purity

strength

tolerance

trust

wisdom

These are in alphabetical order only for convenience but...

let's set up our priorities and sincerely follow them!

May this Summer shines from within You.

Jimi Hendrix

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:24:00 +0000

by Ben Duarri-Screen Prince

The third calligram in The Royalty Series, Jimi Hendrix, is entirely hand drawn lettering using lyrics from "Are You Experienced?", from his break-through album of the same title. I drew from the phsychedelic posters of the time such as Martin Sharp's Bob Dylan cover print of Oz magazine,“Blowing in the Mind” and the work of John Van Hamersveld, Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelly, among others.

Here, Jimi is elevated to a sun-god status, a messiah of rock and roll, with little sun rises in his eyes and mouth refering to the line “we'll hold hands and then we'll watch the sun rise from the bottom of the sea... ” that makes up his jaw and arched moustache and side burns.

The overall impression I wanted to acheive was that of an apparition or hallucination in a cloud of purple smoke and golden sunlight passing through it.

So far, one edition of 20 of the classic gold -lightly blended with green edges at the beginning of the run- and purple has been printed with a slight magenta blend at the edges. So far only 1 run of 20 on white A2 stock has been printed aswell as a few sets of fluoro colours on fluoro paper.

Last month I got all my art work out and made this print as a 3 colour print, with the face area having the brightest area.

They all turned out to be 1/1's because I have these sessions where I have to excersise each possibility which leads to other possibilities of colour combinations. These are now available.

What I have also done is I am now using this print to experiment with dark paper varnish and hand colouring with pigment powders, including metalics. The first proofs of this technique are also available.

* Screen Prince calligram art prints and posters

are available now at artrepublic.com

or contact the artist directly at

thescreenprince(at)hotmail(dot)com

Prince

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:13:00 +0000

by Ben Duarri-Screen Prince

This, the first of my The Royalty Series, a portrait of the mercurial artist known as Prince.

Using the lyrics of his dacefloor classic b-side to Lets Go Crazy - Erotic City, Prince at the height of his Purple Rain era circa 1984. The song was hard to single out from such a vast opus, but the reference to bringing to life a whole dark erotic personality of a city, ”funking in2 the dawn” and ”creamy thighs“ swayed it.

I set out to make an image that was truly erotic only using the lyrics, face and eye contact with the viewer. I looked at lace and lingere, decorative motifs and flourishing from baroque to art-nouveau and blended it with Shakespearian calligraphy. All the letters were constructed with pen and ink and correction pen then photocopied.

So far, only one edition on A2 stock printed in a tinted gold blend and purple and magenta blend has been printed along with three small Artist proof editions of seven, on coloured papers and soft colour hues with various purple blends.

* Screen Prince calligram art prints and posters are available now at

artrepublic.com
or contact the artist directly at
thescreenprince(at)hotmail(dot)com

The Cult of the Calligram

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 08:20:00 +0000

With this post we'll start showing the calligram art work
by Ben Duarri-Screen Prince.

by Ben Duarri

All my work is hand drawn, mostly using dip pens, written in ink and screenprinted as a 2 colour screenprint in gold and blue or purple and maybe more colours. Calligrams stimulate both sides of the brain simultaniously creating balance and the opening of the 3rd eye.

I am starting The Cult of the Calligram and I want to bring calligrams and the making of them to a new generation reared on mind supresants and imagination killers.

I want to find ancient middle eastern calligrams and 20th century european calligrams and contemporary calligrams and calligrams from all time and space that ever were are and will be and gather them together and give a whole generation the tools to communicate with joy and passionate poetry that can only be achieved by creating calligrams.

I have spent the last four years making and printing, making and printing and now my first series of calligrams: The Royalty Series.

I have learned so much doing them and I have fallen in love with their gentle beauty.

* Screen Prince calligram art prints and posters

are available now at artrepublic.com or contact the artist directly at thescreenprince(at)hotmail(dot)com

Le bouquet

noreply@blogger.com (Calligram Designers) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:20:00 +0000

Guillaume Apollinaire created the calligram Le bouquet for the catalog cover of his friends’ art exhibition: Peintures de Léopold Survage. Dessins et aquarelles d’Irène Lagut. - Paris, 21-31 janvier 1917.

The original publication seems to be a very rare treasure for visual poetry: 12 calligrams, printed in facsimile after drawings by Apollinaire, never before published.

More info:

- Apollinaire, visual poetry, and art criticism by Willard Bohn

- ILAB - LILA