Chinese Typography

Designer Nod Young shared his awesome typography on the Behance Network as part of a project to provide suggestions to visitors of Beijing. No additional details, but our guess is that these recommend things to do, places to go, where to stay, where to go for good entertainment, and places to eat. In his own words:

Beijing is an up-and-coming city with too much flavor not to share with the rest of the world. given that more and more people are coming to our city, many of whom might be in need of a suggestion or two, we thought we might provide a short typographical tour for any prospective visitors.

Follow the link to the gallery and check out the rest of the typographic signs. They’re all very good. Something about the ones laid out to look 3D reminds me of russian constructivist  type. Very nice.

Moss Grafitti

Designer Daily brings us this collection of urban marking/marketing approaches that have clearly evolved (or de-evolved) with the times. This reflects the attitutes of a new generation of designers who not only want to do something different, but they view their surroundings in a different way. They’re more in touch with nature, and they’re concerned with materials and the impact of their designs on a global/environmental scale. More marketing than self-expression, they show a degree of creativity that is unusual for urban art. For now. They certainly grab attention.

They’ve grouped this collection into mini-series. Let’s see. We have Moss Grafitti, where text and graphics are on-the-wall and made of moss or grass. Very earthy. Chalk art is very playful and versatile and cheap. No steady hands? Make a stencil! Very nice. I dig the rock-n-roll logo/ad.

Reverse Grafitti

Reverse Grafitti is probably my favorite, simply because it involves removing what’s already there (dirt, mostly) and creating the designs in reverse. These have an air of purification somehow. They’re almost luminous because more light is reflected off the clean surface–much like when the wall was freshly painted or the concrete wall built. Very easy on the eyes.

Snow tagging is not only cool and has a nice texture, but it has the least impact of all. This type of communication is very temporary. And working with snow has a built-in expiration time. It’s also cheap to make your mark with a stencil and go around tagging snow around a city after a fresh snowfall.

Fur Coat Graffitti is more art than marketing but it certainly has its uses and it does grab attention. They show examples of animal shapes. Maybe throw in a little Fur Text? PETA anyone?