Swedish Burger power!

Source: http://yigitarslan.deviantart.com/art/Cafe-Mia-Menu-Design-187974989
Title: Cafe Mia Menu Design
Artist: yigitarslan

Light browns and grays are a good start. Close ups of food images in wavy pictures like ocean tides. The font here is a change of pace from all other menus critiqued so far. Very art deco and the kerning is tight. The dark brown in the dish names doesn't contrast and works with the light brown backdrop.

Even in a different language, it reads well. The legibility for a general audience with calm colors so not to overly stimulate one's eyes. And the fact this was found on deviant art, a place with a dubious reputation, shows there is still talent testing the limits of their skill.

Black & White is something you don't see everyday.

Source: http://www.effectivedesignworld.com/2014/08/hotel-menu-design.html
Title: Tri-fold Brochure 2

You don't normally see a menu quite like this except for old dives and places that cater to older crowds over 50. First, there is no pictures. Nothing to distract the elderly but younger audiences may hate having to imagine what their meal may look like. Also black and white is not an ideal color combination when you want to sell something in the food industry. It's very basic and slightly depressing like being at a funeral parlor with a coffin on the table.

Now the typeface has thriving potential here. An art deco serif style for the title and the rest being serif style black with simple distinction between meal name and description with boldness and lead mono spacing. The thin black lines under each description are meant to further separate but seems unnecessary due to the spacing.  I like because it's retro and doesn't hurt the eyes when reading.

More Photoshop hand model madness.

Source: http://www.effectivedesignworld.com/2014/08/hotel-menu-design.html
Title: Mexican Restaurant Menu

Here's an example template for a Mexican/lunch theme restaurant. Notice the abundance of green and red in both the background space and foreground photos. Bright primary and secondary tones commonly used to indicate natural organic while being colorful enough to attract attention.  The close of the soft shell chime chungas smothered in peppers and spices is a good start to get mouths watering.

Inside, the background is plain white with capital sans serif typeface of red for dish entries and black for descriptions of ingredients. Leading of the lines is reasonable with tracking is not overly stretched. Prices are spaced to match their designated dishes but could use some connection like a dotted line. The bottom of the page appears torn to show the cover page from above. Probably a space saving trick to prevent from splitting the dinner specials across two pages.

I like the steps this unknown artist took because it doesn't try to be in your face with large pictures or flashy colors.

The amazing spider...wait, its not about him?

Source: http://www.effectivedesignworld.com/2014/08/hotel-menu-design.html
Title: The Amazing Restaurant Menu 2

Strange title to claim. What does make this an amazing restaurant menu? Is it the color? The style? The identical hand model in both pages?

Well the text had some thought put into it with a downward descent from left to right. Dish names being bold with icons next to them for easy to identification. Yet the descriptions have a different color that makes them blend too well with the background colors and the small size isn't helping much. Add to those woes is the lack of connection between dish names and their price tags. Hard to tell what home made hot dogs cost with the $6 free floating in space like that. Even after zooming I still have trouble reading the descriptions of the meals on both pages.

Color palette has some range to it with soft tones and shapes resting the background to help contrast with the dish name to hard solid fusion tones that act as borders. Photos thankfully are limited to three per page but their size and shape vary too much.

All in all it's not totally bad like the dreaded Balls of Asia...shudders....but there is a few necessary tweaks to be worked on.

Good bistro is so hard to find.

Source: http://www.effectivedesignworld.com/2014/08/hotel-menu-design.html
title: Bistro Menu Design

If any one is looking for an effective, organic loving, well spaced clean design for their future bizz in the restaurant fast game then this selection from effective design world.com is a good template. The overall color choices are soft primaries and secondary teals over a white backdrop with a blue border hugging the top only. Photos are limited to two  with one large to cover the top and the second nested to the mid right to provide additional eye candy.

Typeface is actually balanced. All lines and lettering is mono spaced so well I think someone took the time to use a ruler to measure every space taken. Every category has a good proximity with dotted lines connecting price with meal. Leading is good with bold font style to separate names from descriptions.

It's good. No. It's better then most menus I've come across. Designed by someone with professional eye for detail. The menu doesn't clog nor does it have an abuse of excessive colors. An example to try and emulate for those interested in Graphic Design.

Coffee menus for Men?

Source: http://www.effectivedesignworld.com/2014/08/hotel-menu-design.html
Title: Coffee Menu

Target audiences are very important when considering a design. Some designs are obvious while others are...abstract. So here its seems strangely targeted to males of age 20-32. How did I arrive to this conclusion? The strange presence of grey and black, which are considered in some marketing circles masculine, as well as straight polygons. Minimal pictures and all of them focus on different styles of coffee. And there's the text. Straight to the point sans serif typeface with spacey leading between lines and long tracking.

There is no cartoon characters, no bright colors except for the yellows used in the price spheres next to the images. There is no flowers or warm hues. It's obviously not for most but the die hard male coffee drinkers.

Christmas lights is not a good pattern for Chili's.

Source: http://www.tapja.com/10-examples-restaurant-menu-design-business-restaurant/examples-of-fast-food-menu-design/
Title: Chili's Menu

Being a national recognized brand, Chili's menu needs to be good design wise. So why does it have some poor choices? For example, the leading of the text is fairly close due to the size of the printing but the tracking is spaced enough to cover the majority of the columns. Tightly packed under a single large circular picture that is enlarged to show a delicious meal available. And the color for the small typeface is a light cream white which normally be easy to see thanks to contrast. I suppose the white is a tad too light. Then again the background colors of altering Christmas lights isn't' helping.

Yet there is somethings that do work. The category titles on titled banners are a nice touch that separates and highlights. Easy to read and naturally brings attention thanks to the rebelling of alignment.  The pictures also work because of the careful focus on the food.

Why so many dishes?

Source: http://www.tapja.com/10-examples-restaurant-menu-design-business-restaurant/korean-restaurant-design-menu/
Title: Korean Restaurant Menu Design

Okay before I go into detail here I just want to point out that the abundance of Asian menus on this blog is due to the abundance of examples I get whenever I go looking on the internet. Seriously, type "menu design" and about one third of them are from a Japanese sushi bar or a Chinese take out restaurant. I would put more non Asian menus if I could find ones that didn't suck too much or didn't suck enough or is an actual decent piece of work.

This  menu falls more under the suck enough category for two reasons: Large abundance of  pictures and really tiny cramped text blocks. One needs to understand that space is important and how much is used or rather not used can make all the difference in people liking your art. The pictures are just too much. Two to three overly large pictures hugging the edges while a cluster of smaller pics Z line across the pages just screams bad form because the customer will be too focused on looking at the pictures and not reading to find their meals. And this is why small text can be a bad thing when it is so cluster together that it reads as one paragraph of a single meal. With that combination it's no wonder I'm getting a headache looking at it.

Then there's the abundance of Korean words. I understand its a Korean restaurant but unless this menu was made for a city where Korean is the dominant form of language, it will alienate the menu from the customers. Drop back some or shrink the Korean next to the pictures so more room can be freed to space out the rest of the texts.

A decent way to make a Chinese menu.

Source: http://www.tapja.com/10-examples-restaurant-menu-design-business-restaurant/chinese-food-menu-design-idea/
Title: Nobel Chinese menu

When picking out a design, you need to think of what best reflects the atmosphere you want to convey to the intended audience. You could try to do one of your own but it makes more profitable sense to hire an artist to design it. There is no shortage of websites advertising to help, most are reliable. But enough about websites, this is about the menu itself.

Nobel Chinese restaurant is a stark contrast compared to Balls of Asia. There is more then one color thank goodness. These colors are good contrasts as they are paired together. The pics are good close ups of the available dishes, enough to stir a hunger hopefully.

Now the text is a hit and miss. Each page seems to have its own unique layout according to the number of dishes and space available. Not a bad idea but it does take away from consistency a little. The Chinese letters and English letters is another contrast that gives a good vibe to the menu of oriental flavor. It also causes a conflict of languages since not a lot of Americans can read  Hun Chinese.

It's a good menu. Note there are a couple of mistakes such as the red background for the second page and this being replaced by black from page four on. With a couple of fixes, It may get better.

Balls of asia...I just can't look away...

Source: http://uiconstock.com/65-restaurant-menu-designs-for-designers-inspiration-2014/
Title: Balls of Asia menu

First there's good quality menus. Then there's okay designs. Followed by poor choices in color, typeface, sizing, space usage or all of the above.

Then there's Balls of Asia. ...Dear God in heaven what am I looking at?

Um, the red is big in effect here. Almost too red. So bright that it seems to match the color of certain foods. Next is the format. Everything is in parallel columns with tacky spike typeface to name each dish and a number in the opposite corner. What is the purpose for that? Why didn't the artists use space much more effectively to allow room to add descriptions to the dishes displayed?  Why is it called "Balls of Asia"? Reference to the ball shapes of some of these dishes? Or something else? I hope its not the something else.

This takes the cake for bad menu design. It's the king of crud. It's...Balls of Asia.

Read the sign and stop for some eggs.

Source: http://uiconstock.com/65-restaurant-menu-designs-for-designers-inspiration-2014/
Title: I have 2 eggs and More Menu

Some restaurants have a certain time of day where business peaks and revenues pay off for the employee's hard work. This is called the magic hour and depending on where your business is and what specialties its good at, its the aim goal for every employee to meet. It is the time where dozens of patrons flock into your store waiting to be served quickly and respectfully their meals. In turn for such kindness, big tips and revenue for the business.  Most are focused on the usual breakfast/lunch/dinner time tables while others aim for the rush hour traffic lot.

Then there are chains that stick to certain time to make or break them. That time is breakfast/ early lunch specials for "I have 2 eggs and more".  To get people to want to eat there, their menu has to reflect a happy wanting to raise up and meet the day with positive attitude. Ergo, the color palette has soft oranges and bright yellows and blacks for both attention getting and sunny mood. Next is the typefaces which take a black tone, san serif font to contrast against the orange backdrop(nicely done there) while category titles are highlighted with polygon yellowish-orange to stand out. Pictures hug the top and bottom sections so the text blocks can be read without interference. The pictures are large but not so enormous that they keep the audience from looking down to read the selections.Finally, the yellow street sign with eggs is a nice way to state what they are selling as most adults in american are trained to pay attention to bright yellow street signs for road conditions instinctively.

Trying to make something cool doesn't mean you should loose basics.

Source: http://uiconstock.com/65-restaurant-menu-designs-for-designers-inspiration-2014/
Title: Laelet Alkaif Menu

I have no idea what type of restaurant this is supposed to be. Best guess from the information presented is a new age organic fruit /cafe. Um, the proprietors seem to like big, singular pictures to the left leaving a very small space for wording that seems to blend too much with the mocha background. I want to find the person that design and yell at his face for not using a better contrasting color for his text. "Where is the white?!" I would say.

Sigh. I get the fact the artist was trying to get the cool metro sexual organic loving coffee vibe for his/hers patrons. But that shouldn't be an excuse for poor design. Bad Color palette choices, giant pictures that take up too much space. Too tiny text blocks with coloring that blends too well with the backgrounds. Unbalanced ratio of space usage. Any person would have a hard time reading the words while being eagerly wanting more illustrations of the dishes listed and not photos taken from a photographer's studio.

Just bad design here.

Korean Sol food.

Source: http://designhomes.pics/best-restaurant-menu-design/28/view-full-size/
Title: Hoban Korean Cuisine

Lets start with the text, the meat of the menu. There is so many items on this brochure it becomes hard to read what items belong to what category. A common problem among popular and big chain restaurants. The white category titles are good start although I don't know why they feel slightly tilted compared to the rest of the alignment. Sizing also helps to conserve space as well as difference descriptions from their dishes. Another helper is the addition of icons beside the dish text bodies to help further identity spices, origins, and allergens.

The pictures may seem a little too much on certain pages. One or two pictures would suffice. And the temple on the third page in the top row seems out of place with the rest of the consistency. The front cover shows an excellent use of space because you don't need to fill it up. No bells or whistles here. The title name with the same name in Korean helps to create that distinct region of the orient. A bowl of rice in one corner with chop sticks parallel in the top for balance.

Triforce Pizza power.

Source: http://www.tuhindesigns.com/print_portfolio.php
Artist: Mohammad Tunin
Title: The Perfect Pizzeria

Not every menu has to be a masterpiece. It's purpose is to present a delightful description of the house specialties and meals with pictures and typeface. Most menus are simple, easy to read brochures that make the customers happy to eat here in anticipation of their meals. So too does this menu. It's not meant to be fancy but it's clean enough to show some family friendly class to its' intended audience of middle to upper class families who enjoy brick oven style pizzas. How does it achieve this? Lets take a look in the next paragraph.

Food is divided into categories based on appetizers, entrees, specialties and pastas. These categories are then placed into one of three rectangular boxes, divided by two gutters symbolized by wine glasses. The categories are further segregated by color and spacing to show name, basic description and even sizes. Quite organized  even with the three pizzas acting as a triangular focus to draw attention to the main entries: Custom pizzas.

It's a good piece. Simple but it works.

Pirate themes are always tacky.

Source: http://www.ofifacil.com/en-ideas-examples-restaurant-menu-design-menu-layout.php
Title: The Portelet Inn

Themes can be difficult to present if the artist doesn't put enough thought into the design. And abstract themes such as pirates tend to be hardest to convey. Often the sight of ridicule and tackiness, most are wild and so rowdy that once wants to gag at the sight of them.

Lets start with the CGI. It's shiny and the shadowing effect is too strong. The barrels just clash too much with the photoshoped background and don't get me started on the tacky cutlass sword in place of the letter P with its lens flair. The rope gutter slots actual causes the text bodies to feel clumped and take up space unnecessary. The food shown is simple and all at the same size, meaning no close ups or blown ups images to incite the desire for eating.

Now for the text. It all follows a left alignment sans serif style format. Yet some are crooked far too much to conflict with the main bodies.  This is especially true with the parchment texts boxes that float around the menu like loose bubbles. They seem to take up odd spaces and just distract. All signs of an amateur take for a professional menu.

Karma's a colorful B**** and then you get slapped by the rainbow.

Source: http://www.ofifacil.com/en-ideas-examples-restaurant-menu-design-menu-layout.php
Title: Karma Cafe & Restaurant (variety)

Now, I'm not a fan of Indian food but the colorful variety of this menu does peak an interest to take a look inside. Oranges, royal purples, vivid reds marked with golden yellows is something you don't see in most restaurant menus chains. Most like to stick to one style and color palette so to see this many colors shows creativity.

Now the inside is inscribed with imagery of classic Hindu architecture serving as backdrop along with statues of men sitting down Indian style looking all sorts of uncomfortable while smiling. Each section of the menu's courses are grouped into yellowish-vanilla boxes spaced evenly. And lets not forget the border resembling fine embroidery. Overall, a decent colorful presentation but very tiny print that fades with the background illustrations.

Ride the red wave....not its not what you think.

Source: http://www.ofifacil.com/en-ideas-examples-restaurant-menu-design-menu-layout.php
Title: Medialuz cafe and Restaurant

To get people to water their mouths for your food, one has to create a design that appeals to the target market. I'm guessing the target market is artful, Latin dish loving folk. First the cover. The red swirls like a tidal wave to invite movement and spice. The flowers with their contrasting stretching leaves add a sense of countering movement to draw attention from the audience.

Now on to the internal pages where the meat of the menu is located. Groups of similar dishes are kept in ideal spaced proximity. Though a little tight, everything follows in a unified, left alignment with a healthy trinity of tasty dishes. Both transparent and solid backgrounds do well to keep the audience glued to the menu.

White + Blue + Black = GreyHound.

Source: http://designandi.co.uk/print-design/the-greyhound-food-drink-takeaway-menu-design/
Artist: Martin Hyde
Title: The Grey Hound Food & Drinks menu

An adult menu for clear thinking adults. The layout of text is clearly separated and a distinct imbalance of white to black for the background that works; It allows to highlight both the name of the bar and the menu without having to separate with different colors or typefaces. The blue is a good subtitle while the rest of the text in the white zone is black to contrast for easy reading. And the best part is all of the text is the same typeface which helps for consistency and context.

Compared to the Big boy menu (See previous), it's quite bland and unbalanced. Everything is meant to be for the relaxing adult mindset looking to unwind.

Fat Big Boy Hamburger Slim.

Source: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-for-men/menu-design-in-america-6273766
Title: the Big Boy menu.
Artist: Unknown
Contributed to: Esquire Magazine.com
Original source: Menu Design in American: 1850-1985

Big Boy franchise was quite popular in the 1950s to the late 1990s. I don't know if the franchise is still alive but that matters not for the subject of this post. The menu is simple and cartoonist to resonate with the simpler times of the mid twenty century living. Red cursive lettering for titles with black bold food selections for a good start but the close proximity of some items make them blend too much. There's also the abundance of red in the back ground. That works with the dull cream color in the foreground but due to the shape of the menu it makes it seem too excessive. If it was a normal 8x11 menu size then the red would balance out. Finally, the outline of the menu resembles the once famous Big Boy icon to present a family friendly atmosphere upon the menu.

It gets the job done for a family restaurant. No alcoholic drinks so children don't accidentally order one and the print is large enough for easy reading.

Cafe soft soft yummy.

Source: http://naaj.deviantart.com/art/Cafe-Loret-Menu-Card-Design-Inside-View-331864953
Artist: Naaj
Title: Cafe Loret Menu Card Design inside view.

Soft vanillas color the background as cursive type titles act to grab your attention; at least the attention for the soft spoken. The items are aligned and arranged so neatly they border on the OCD side.  Pictures are aligned along the center across a light brown strip but to be fair I think this would work better without one.

This is to portray a calm, relaxing place where every sort of delicious afternoon snack food. Not for the night owls nor the loud and vulgar. It is about a place you stop by for a cup of coffee and a scone before shopping hour.

Olive you glad this a short review?

Source: http://redlorymenuandcatalog.blogspot.com/
Title: Olive cocktail & music bar
Artist: RedloreyStudio

It's rare to see a restaurant so devoted to drink service, specially to certain drink mixes. But not so rare that it's unheard on the drinking scene. With its mass of colorful cocktails parading across a lime green background fizzling with bubbles, this menu indulges to the youthful, late night metro sexual crowds looking for nightly pleasures. It's for an adult bar, meant to relax and fizzle away one's worries.

Background color of Olive green isn't usually chosen because of its often sickly appearance to one's own eyes. Text hugs the left side of the menu with uncooperative styles and bars. Even with contrasting colors to distinguish sub titles from descriptions, they become a mess. And there's the pantheon of margaritas and cocktails across all of the pages. They seem to just be space takers, not to mention they don't follow to any proximity pattern. Colorful as they are, I think only three per page would suffice. Any more would be distracting.

Green is the new...trend setter?

Source: http://possector.com/en/blog/menu-ideas
Artist: Unknown.
Restaurant: Enlightenment

Coming across this after looking for decent examples of typography in food advertising; a balancing of space, word proximity, and alignment to present higher quality meals. The type face has legibility with spread out tracking and art deco inspired times new roman word style on the front and back covers. The multi-shade colors of green demonstrate nature or natural food and the photo of cooked shrimp helps to moisten the audiences taste buds.

The inner pages are much more text dominate as the meat of the menu is presented. Each item reads down a literal column as the lettering appears squished together and tiny. There is three pictures of the meals for mentioned, hugging opposing ends of the pages like a wiggling pattern. No lack of room here because space is occupied. Gutter lines are used well to divide the information into three pages instead of one massive big page.

All in all a decent menu that serves it purpose.

A little too much photoshop.

Source:http://brochure.designcrowd.co/contest.aspx?id=116534&page=2
Artist: C23design Company
Menu: Chai Traditional Thai Cuisine

The layout makes me feel like Im at a kitchen counter top, ingredients hugging around the edge ready to be diced, mixed and sizzled into eye catching dishes. Bright colors of reds and yellows and greens dancing around the papyrus like an encircling rainbow vortex. In the center the text is divided into cursive sub headers and small red cherry wood serif font meals. The cursive is a little hard to read thanks in part with the italics and thinly lines of the lettering. While the red text has an issue with tight spacing  between lines.

While the ingredients do their job, it also makes one think if they are necessary. It may help to establish an Asian culinary atmosphere but it greatly limits the size of space for the body of the text to the center. And why ingredients? Only one image here is an actual dish and frankly I would like to see more examples of the meals then what it took to make them.

B Frank and get sloshed

Source: http://www.designer-daily.com/25-brilliant-wine-label-bottle-package-designs-1808
Title: BFrank Wine label
Artist: Talia Cohen

It's nothing special. That's why I like it. The reverse capital B resting on top like a pressing weight to the smaller, opposing aligning body of text. It's not supposed to appeal to city slickers or yuppies or snobs. It's a working man's wine.  Its a wine for people with sarcastic humors.

The font is semi bold and san serf because it is meant to be easy to read and not fancy. The background is just white so the bold font can be read. The blank lines can easily be a distasteful detractor but the appeal of a customizable wine label would negate this to some. A blank label to serve as a canvas for a potential mixer that can be imaged to fit to the right mood.

For the flower lover in all of us.

Source: http://www.designer-daily.com/25-brilliant-wine-label-bottle-package-designs-1808
Title: Sicani Wine bottle (Clear white bottle)
Artist: Social UK

There's movement in the flowers. They seem to be thrown across the glass surface like they were launched from the grasp of a angry lover who just walked in to her cheating spouse's affair. The direction is spread out between leaves, stems and blooming buds as they cascade. The red flower is a seductive hue; the red is dull on the outer edges of the flower but the center is a warm yellowish red  to draw attention to the center of the bottle. The lighter highlights give a taste of early twentieth century oil/acrylic paintings.

The type below is center spaced in a descending, almost shrinking order. Normally, this is a no no because it would make the audience think their in an optometrist office getting a vision check. But the cascading flowers are the pull here so the center text is not supposed to distract the audience from the almost still life painting. The typeface is easy enough to read even down to the tiniest of fonts.  The white wine adds a clean, serene feel.

Too minimalist for my tastes.

Source: http://www.designer-daily.com/25-brilliant-wine-label-bottle-package-designs-1808
Title: Sheva wine bottles (center bottle)
Artist: Nine99 Design

This style doesn't try to be striking. It plays a little too safe with the minimalist approach. The droplet image slowly cascading across the log is fine but the rest of the logo is too dull of a selling point. I can't tell if the red blob is a thought bubble or a wine stain. The title type is too small to read and just lacks a pulling to the intended audience, which could be evening partygoers or solitary drinkers. Almost as if the artist lost interest and just slap a shape there.

There is room for improvement. Perhaps rid of the red blob and enlarge the text to fill in the space. Maybe different complementary color schemes or more modern type style of the city going drinker.

If bud had naked ladies on their bottles...

Source: http://cr8id.com/speakeasy-bottles/
Artist: Samantha Wiley
Title: Mockingbird bottle label.

It's appeal comes from the sharp uneven spacing of black to white or clear to black for the clear bottle. The silhouette of the curvy woman gives a hint of attractive sex appeal to the male demographic but the clean distinct lines give hint to higher class. Cursive type for the title hugging the curve of the border between dominate top and submissive bottom. Speaks of an earlier time, perhaps 1920s with the use of the title and bird.

There is no mountains or shiny type or water droplets to be seen. It is not meant to be like other modern beer labels. It's got a darker tone with the amount of black.

These would look 20% cooler if your on acid...

Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-KTIqSSqZBNHJkWncSnNK2_BkzkNbb1PAcFKGYEIdQpqGNiWLVLo8sm6Y2XBqaAMo2sTxfelvOkLBxjhzMZ1oCvJCdIagSNDJ4WEyLNbYzpTJ-lmvKyyiUnCMs2N-K7s8PUs-kOQWe0I/s1600-h/1.jpg
Artist: PJ Richardson. (Second bottle to the right)
Title : J Church

In 2008, Pepsi company issued the Mountain Dew Green label to promote recycling. Each bottle was designed digitally and printed on Aluminum bottles, the poe boys of soda cans. Since there's a lot here to cover, I'll just chat about the lively bright bottle second to the last on the right side of the picture.

PJ Richardson is a MICA graduate who started out as a common graffiti artist, focusing on turning lettering into design, animation and live actions. His bottle, entitled J Church, is the best here arguably. The bright mix of reds and teal blues are great start for attracting audience attention. It's a vibrating collage of street chaos you might find on the side of a train car. The kind of art that connects to the intended customer mindset that buys this brand of soda. It's bright, melting imagery makes one mind abuzz just from staring at it as you seek out recognizable patterns.

It beats out its competition but just barley. Mike Sutfin's Hessian Henchmen to J Church's immediate right serves better as skin for a Monster energy drink then Mountain Dew. It's far darker and sinister looking where as J Church has less implied violence. Course this design would not work for the traditional can because it's youthful rebellious design would turn off older crowds.

Steven Jobs looks super creepy here.

Source: http://theexperiential.deviantart.com/art/Steven-Paul-Jobs-113968783
Artist: Theexperiential
Title: Steven Paul Jobs

His eyes are what bothering me. They're staring right at you under a heavy shadow. It's not bad bothering as it is an intended creepiness? Moving aside from this, the mood intended is part mysterious and insightful. His face is crawling with the ideas, bands, names that inspired a genius to take gambles. You also see a hint of sadness from the trials he took and maybe from the thought that he knew he would not last to see all of his ideas come to fruition.

The blue is a good choice for invoking depressing feelings and the downward lighting  helps to highlight words that need to stand out.

I'm Batmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaann..*coughs*

Source: http://livingworkinprogress.deviantart.com/art/TypeFace-Batman-Beyond-270841556
Artist: Livingworkinprogress
Title: Typeface- Batman Beyond.

In the late 90's, the WB launched a cartoon called batman beyond and it was producer Bruce Timm's finest work at the time aside from the earlier Batman:TAS. It was dark, edgy with fleshed out characters and action filled stories yet still acceptable to watch for a saturday morning cartoon. The focus was split between an aging Bruce Wayne, cynical due to his failing health and still keenly observant, and a neo-punk teen named Terry Mcguise with street smarts and athletic potential as the pair fight crime in a more cyberpunk Gotham of the nearing future.

What makes this works is the in your face dive of the body as the red letters fan outward from the center bat emblem. The mix of large numbers and single letters help to shape the form and shade the details. If one can look closer, you can see sentences that reveal interesting spoilers from the series's run.

Even dead, Chapman still makes news.

Source: http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/10/06/4-long-dead-celebrities-resurrected-via-typeface-art/
Newspaper: Folha De S.
Title: Movie stars in your newspaper.

This typeface art is part of a series that ran in the Brazilian newspaper.A promotional stunt to get buzz back into the press. Tributes to the memory of cinema's sliver age stars that helped to shape the direction of the industry both on and off the screen. Everything is clean serif font; Every letter is carefully utilize to shape the familiar poses and appearances that resonate with the public memory.

Here we see the enduring little tramp dressed in a suite of capital and lower case letters. Leaning on his can of capital L and little i. Even his mustache is a type with the twin dots and black block. A fun little project to say the least.

Useless facts can be art too.

Source: http://graphics002.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/50-spectacular-type-and-text-artworks/
Artist: CHIN2OFF
Title: inject knowledge question mark.

What was the motive behind this? Its not like knowing there's a million ants to one me in the world is going to make me feel any better. Because it won't cause I'll feel my skin crawl a little. Perhaps it's aim is to make you wonder. Why did coca-cola change it's original colors? Do spiders really have clear blood?

Honestly, I think it would have served better as a 2-d image. The underside looks ill-stretched in some areas. Not even matching with the same degree or angle. The fade effect doesn't help either.

I write everything on my hands

Source: http://graphics002.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/50-spectacular-type-and-text-artworks/
Artist: Hyperpower
Title: Fingerprint Memories

A good piece.To start with, shading is conducted with the typeface that reveals little secretes of the artist. The amount of detail taken is impressive, especially with the knuckles and wrinkles along the joints. The white light reflecting on the backhand is a little strong for my tastes. With a little more shading this piece could be better.

And now...A naked man.

Source: http://graphics002.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/50-spectacular-type-and-text-artworks/
Artist: griiot
Title: homme typo

It's a nice piece to look upon. But there's a critical piece missing here. Can you guess? The message.

What was the point behind this detailed anatomical man of so many words? We are given so little clues to this. Arms hidden behind the head to convey guilt or perhaps wrongful imprisonment? A cluster of jumbled letters reach out from behind him to consume or does he attempt to hide the cluster out of a sense of shame?  His form indicates a lack of concealment to the rest of his torso. A reference to sexuality one might think.

Without further elaborations, I can only guess what the purpose of this piece is trying to aim at. Further details have to be added.

Cigarette's kill...well duh.

Source: http://graphics002.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/50-spectacular-type-and-text-artworks/
Artist: Desert Viper
Title: Got a light

Anti-smoking ads require three things to work; Facts, attention getting graphics, and message. The idea being to sway you away from smoking by listing the nearly four thousand chemicals that go into just one cigarette. Most of these serve as the background in faded, neatly rowed type. The biggest killers get the star treatment by coming together to form the cancer stick. It's pretty clever with the color coded typeface alignment. And the way "Tar" just crumbles like it's real counterpart while lighter fluid, hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide float away as curving fumes.

The problem I have is the choice of color. Yellow is a good attention grabber but it should have been used only for the the cigarette type art. Anything after that would have been too much.

Watch for falling blocks

Source: http://graphics002.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/50-spectacular-type-and-text-artworks/
Artist: patronus4000
Title: writer's block

Impressive with what one can do with letters. Often, people have these bursts of inspiration; jotting down vasts amount of wording in crunches or over a period of time. Then there are the moments where everything slows down till the fingers don't touch the keypad or the pen is filled with ink but just hovers above a blank page. Writer's block is this sudden road stop; your forced to stop and can't find the means to go on as the gears in your head grind themselves to oblivion.

I'll say this. It doesn't need the word "writer's" because it just unnecessary. The message is clear with the three dimensional cube sitting on top of a jumble of the word block. Each side is the progress of the same story about the human mind pleading almost to find an idea and breath it to life via words. Yet it cannot pass the ground barrier that is a complete jumbled mess.

Can you hear me?

Source: http://graphics002.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/50-spectacular-type-and-text-artworks/
Artist: Gordorca
Title: I speak alone.

Sometimes I have trouble speaking to people of the opposite sex. I have a lot to say but my mouth stumbles to get the right words out. So this piece I can relate to. The type maybe too tiny to read as the spacing is small and tracking too close to the individual lettering inside the male. Tightly packed to give that dread he feels to the female. Its a wall inside himself he just can't seem to climb over to reach her.

Can you read Japanese?

Source: http://graphics002.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/50-spectacular-type-and-text-artworks/
Artist: Ashed~Dreams
Title: Utada Hikaru typo portrait

To better understand this subject, perhaps it best I explain who Utada Hikaru is. She is a popular singer/songwriter. She is born Japanese American and is versed in piano, guitar and vocals across a wide range of musical genres including Pop, R&B, Rock, Alternative, Dance, Synthpop, and electronica. Holds twelve number one singles on Japan's Oricon Singles chart including her debut album First Love and two record achievements for a solo female artist or group artists. To western audiences, she is the songwriter and singer of the Kingdom Heart's Simple and Clean, the franchises' theme song.

Almost every single letter is written in Kanji, Japan's premier written language. I find it amazing how naturally the kanji can be manipulated to form shapes as fine as individual strands of hair or shadow lines under Hikaru's chin. The smaller the lettering the bigger the hue on Hikaru's facial features. It creates a natural beauty that can be easy to read. Whereas English words would read funny to most audiences as they are intended to be in a straight line from left to right; imagine it if these Kanji were translated into bold cap english letters, you would start to see Kanji does not have this restriction and can be read horizontally or vertically.

Finally, the sentence "Can you keep a secret" is a nice enticement for viewers to ponder.

kids always look creepy in gas masks.

Source:http://graphics002.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/50-spectacular-type-and-text-artworks/
Artist: getrainedon.
Title: Freedom, since when?

Freedom isn't free. A lesson often hard learned. Here the cost is demonstrated by the little girl hiding behind a gas mask. A device designed to obscure her facial features while indirectly causing a sense of danger/dread to the audience's mind. Various freedoms fall behind her either as rain or possible symbolizing bombs. Another way of seeing this is the mask being some sort of filter, keeping her from saying what is truly on her mind as only acceptable freedoms are spoken.

The girl is meant to be a victim but a victim of what is not precisely known. Freedom is something we are taught at a early age that it is a fundamental right to pursue. Without further details elaborating, the true purpose of the message seems obscure here.

There is only one MJ...

Source: http://www.insidethatad.com/

Title: Type art
Artist: Phershsoldier

Surprisingly realistic. The black background makes the reds and browns pop to the audiences eyes. MJ's face showing a moment of determination in adversity with every squint and shadow.The lighting effects are highlighting the right portions of the body. Every word one can make out sums up MJ's career, character and success both on and off the court.

What adds to the value of the piece and I'm not talking price here, is MJ's signature in the top right corner. It adds a level of appreciation and acknowledgment of talent from someone so recognized as MJ.

INFINITE GGGGGGGGGGggggggggggggsss...

Source: http://geoffmyers.deviantart.com/art/quot-Type-is-Art-quot-Typoposter-272938877

Artist: geoffmyers

Title: "Type is Art" typoster

Now this is something creative. Taking one particular letter in a name and emphasis it in a big way so that people can see it. The infinity effect from the succession of lower case g's going within the opening.  I don't like small size for the rest of the name or where it is placed. You can hardly see it off to the right of the lettering. Perhaps if it was placed where "typeisart" is set or gotten rid of all together.  It just doesn't seem necessary to me.

*Play Black Sabbath's Iron Man in the background*

Source: http://donovanolson.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/type-anatomy-iron-man/
Artist: Donovan Olson
Title: Type Anatomy Iron Man

Marvel movie nut, so when I saw this pic, I had to post it. Every line shown is a letter; Even the omi repulsor in the center of the chest is an @ colored in a soft blue hue akin to the glowing arc reactor of the film adaptation. What helps further is the descriptive flags pointing out easy to miss details such as x-height, typeface, ligatures, etc.  The color scheme really helps because its iron man's iconic red and gold; bright, flashy and easy to spot across the room.

Only down side is it a simple Book antiqua illustration. Just iron man standing there. Staring back. Would be better if it was made doing a action such as flight or about to fire a repulsor.

Put the words on the foot that will go into your mouth

Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmick/4005330221/
Artist: Razvan Coste
Title: nike type art

Okay, I'll say it. Typeface shoes have been done before. I think  it was early 90s but its a proven formula. Still, new spins on an old thing should be tried for they may actually improve upon the original. According to the artist this took about four hours to complete and it does show dedication.

The red lettering near the bottom of the shoe is a risky move; the nike catch phrase "Just do it" has a jumbled sizing issue along with being jumbled with all these numbers and letters makes it harder to read from a distance. It would make much more sense if the phrase was shaped along the laces or larger print on the left side of the shoe. Then there's "nike AiR" which hides itself too well in the familiar logo of a multi-billion dollar company. Perhaps these could have been given the red letter treatment or perhaps the entire shoe could have been made from the phrase nike air. These are just ideas but they could be worth something to the right ears.

Killing you with typeface

Source: http://www.wallartrockers.com/3-Lukas-Bischoff-Contemporary-graphic-and-typographic-robot-wall-art-in-vinyl-on-large-format-acrylic.htm
Title: 2023 typebot

At first, it's kind of cool to look at. Giant grey mecha made out of type. Appeals to the male gamer persona. Barrels in particular are pretty deceiving with the way the letter i is stretched and titled to look like a gun barrel.

But when you step back and look you feel its missing something. It feels just letters that were jumbled together that happen to make our pattern seeking brains to identify as a robot. It needs scenery in the background/foreground. It needs skulls made out of the word skull for its' mechanical chicken feet to step on. It needs content.

Inspired by the bird y.

Source: http://shadowness.com/xjosh2k6x/inspired-typography-art
Artist: xjosh2k6x
Title: Inspired Typography Art

Type art of animals seems rare to me. I think the reason why is that animals are way different than simple human anatomy. Even more so when your restricted to using only words  associated with a certain mood or phrase. You have to carefully pick which words to use and how to align them into the desired shape on the page. Words like "smart" "Open minded" "creative" have to put sized and placed into the right fitting.

I do have a couple of gripes. First being the upside down lettering of "inspire" and "Do". I understand the need to form a easily recognizable head and upper wing but going against the format of the rest of the wording does hurt to turn one's own head to read. Second, the over use of > for the beak and tail feather for I feel it goes against the idea of an inspiring message made out of entirely inspiring words. Lets face it, it's like cheating here.

Type makes an ugly woman

Source: http://ejnord.com/blog/type-is-art-piece/

Name: Renaissance Woman
Artist: "Tim" ((found on Eric Nord's site.))

Typically, I see lots of type art featuring famous people so this is a nice breath of fresh air. This simple cartoon-ish profile is made possible thanks to the curvy lines of the san-serif font. The way some of the lettering blends together, forming shapes such as the lips or wavy hair. Even alterations such as half of the letter k to create high cheek bones or the letter n cropped to form the top of an earlobe.

Manipulation of this scale seems easy but to the trained digital artist it would take effort of a large kind. Most if not all of it would have to be converted to shapes for stretching or cropping. Followed alignment and placement of each letter. The careful planning into designing this is far more challenging than creating a type montage of a living human being because 99% of them are based off existing photos or still of the subject matter. This picture had to be created out of the artist's mind first which adds some props to the talent.

Funky Owl Jam

Funky Owl Jam

Source:

https://m1.behance.net/rendition/modules/63614961/disp/b11d29a0a5705d60c045f929d7604f3a.jpg

Everyone in the world has their own preferred tastes to the vast ocean genres of music. For the Arcade Empire 's 2012 electro fest the artist was commissioned to create a series of posters depicting animals listening to electric music. The idea being individuality being brought to the surface from smooth tones and bopping beats. This one showing a fluffy blue owl with headset staring out to the audience viewing it. 

The color scheme is simple with an empathizes on light hue blue mixes with beige; Not a normal color choice but strangely works for this instance. There is also a balance of typographic elements hugging their own portions of the poster size. Sadly, the bands featuring are too small to read. There's a lack of information about the vendors, dates and address. Tons of space that can be utilize for a more attractive poster. The owl is nice but it's too much the focus of the poster.

Square Waves Or blinded by the white.

 Source: http://www.squarewaves.ca/

A simple black and white unbalanced poster of the Vancouver Square Waves electronic music festival and Modular Synthesizer Symposium heavy on vagueness. The location and times are far too small to read. The white background adds a blurriness to the text when trying to read from afar.Upon closer inspection, the white space feels too empty and frankly needs something besides square text brackets. One wouldn't even to think that this a rectangular poster because of the whiteness blending with the background of this blog.

I did mention unbalance, which refers to the sharing of space between the photoshop graphic and the white nothing on the bottom. The graphic is detailed with shadow and light reflective effect; the image being a close up of what I could only guess is an electric amp. I can't really tell because the close up has not discerning details to tell me otherwise. The white is a void aside from the slanted hard to read text boxes.

The text is very plain, tilted to be reminiscent of late 90's brochure art. Even the title sentence feels so boring with it's lack of creativity. So much could have been done to make this appeal to the audience it is selling towards; A selection of colors targeting to the audience, bigger text and style, additional graphics, etc. It's just so simple and frankly counterproductive. In relation to class, this a prime example of why doing the bare minimal will not cut it into today's market.