The Typographic Universe

The Typographic Universe: Letterforms Found in Nature, the Built World and Human Imagination has been authored by Steven Heller, co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author programme at the School of Visual Arts, New York.

Heller has co-written the book with Gail Anderson who also lectures at the School of Visual Arts.

The first thing to note about the book is that it is deeply absorbing whether read properly or flicked through.

It’s a series of thousands of captioned images delineated by chapters which look at the likes of Objectified, Bodily, Floral – and our favourite – Edible type, a section which proves to be playful and highly irresistible, although possibly because at the time of writing Design Week hadn’t had breakfast.

Overall there is a focus on both discovered and deliberate typography, which can be equally evocative and effective.

We’re particularly taken with this gravity defying type by Hussain Almossawi, which manages to look like both a liquid and a solid.

The Typographic Universe: Letterforms Found in Nature, the Built World and Human Imagination is written by Steven Heller and Gail Anderson, published by Thames and Hudson and priced £24.95.