Calligram Designers

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 spec...

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.

This is a plastic bag that "carries" a very meaningful statement. Designed by Thorbjørn Ankerstjerne while he was a student. 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.

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...

Go out  Federico Gene Advertisement for Woman's Day Magazine, 1953. All rights reserved. [...] Federico’s best-known ad for Woman’s Day typifies this rhythmic sensitivity. It has the catch-line “Go Out,” and shows a photo of a woman riding a bicycle with wheels made from the two lowercase Futura ‘o’s in the headline. The aim of this ad was to persuade potential advertisers that three million-plus devoted readers went out of their way to buy this check-out counter magazine. The ads apparently did well for the client, but more importantly proved the power of persuasive visual simplicity in a field that often errs on the side of overstatement. [...] From  Gene Federico: The Art Director’s Art Director  by Steven Heller. Read more info about Federico Gene on  AIGA and  New York Times .

by Laura Ruggeri "L" as a heart, a heart full of "L", "L" as in Love, it makes a heart full of Love! ... because as we very well know Love is all we need.

by Laura Ruggeri STORY I designed this calligram in 1996 for the theatrical season Poeti Filosofi e Giullari. Antonio Molinari (Associazione Progetti Culturali), the actual client, came to my studio and asked: "Laura I need an unique image for the next season. You have a blank slate. Surprise me." I asked Antonio what was the main show of the season: "The Qohèlet - The Book of Ecclesiastes", he answered. I designed and patiently typeset by hand this calligram using all of the text of the book visualizing The Thinker of Rodin in type as a symbol of the human being who thinks "Completely meaningless, completely meaningless! Everything is meaningless" as Qohèlet said. It took 21 days to produce this calligram. TECHNIQUE The font used for the calligram is Helvetica Neue - from UltraLight to Black + ExtraBlack crafted just for this project. 7 weights in total. APPLICATION poster, libretto cover, flyer, invitation card

Calligram Designers is a group of graphic designers, artists, illustrators and writers. Our mission is to promote calligrams as a powerful and creative visual communication technique that might enhance our personal and business work. In this blog you can view the best examples of calligrams from all over the world.