I’m sure you already know cool places on the Internet to find interesting, nice and fun stuff about typography and graphic design, but yet, here you are reading this article ;). But I digress. Let me present you with some of Fontyou’s favorite blogs and websites that help us stay creative, and kill a few hours. I may forget to mention every cool place, so please let me know some of your best in the comments.
Inspiration
Sometimes, you just have to close your eyes to get a brilliant idea. Some other times, inspiration needs a bit more than only your brain to emerge. Here is a list of places full of images and creative ideas.
Typography
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News, trends, releases, art, food all around letters. Typography Daily is “your daily dose of type”, thanks to short but well illustrated articles. You can also frequently (but not daily!) find interesting font bundles in this blog published by Mirko Humbert, a Swiss graphic and web designer.
The power of big signs, original compositions and text-image love stories. From Götz Gramlich to Corbin Mathieu, from Argentina to the Czech Republic, discover the work of creative people and design studios through their typographical, colourful and mesmerizing posters.
Typostrate “shows the passion and power of typography to the world” all week round. Cool quotes on Monday, impressive videos on Wednesday (mostly calligraphic), a free font on Friday (once a month) and various inspirations for the weekend (embroidery, fruits, 3D… typography).
Very big images of beautiful letter and type designs + short captions and links = lots of time spent browsing with desire. It’s a great place to think about type, and get to know the site’s owners, four young Americans their and designer friends. If you are looking for inspiration to offer a nice little gift, FoT also has a small e-shop!
The perfect place to spend hours between logos, posters, animated gifs and fonts in many uses in an endless browsing format! Posts are so varied that there is type stuff for all tastes, from the best to well, the not so great, the weird, the classical and more.
For Rob Keller, a huge typography fan (typografan?), you should be obsessed by type too. Or at least like it too! On his blog, he shares some news, conferences reports, exhibition notes and many other things, as long as they’re type things.
The crème de la crème of typography, mainly because Behance is behind Typography Served, which means, well it has its finger on the typographic pulse.
An awesome tumblr with old shop signs from French villages and elsewhere. It’s somewhere between nostalgia, humor and big dose of retro inspiration. Fleurs, coiffeur, bonheur!
Graphic Design
Julien Josset, artistic director, shares on his blog (in French) his various treasures about graphic pictures and overall design. The articles are clear, unpretentious, and they always highlight original visuals. Josset opened his kitchen to satisfy his need for sharing, archiving and staying alert. His recipes manage to satisfy his audience too!
Inspiration can be found at the corner of the street, in a sentence, a good meal, a fashion magazine or a funny item. Graphic or type design inspiration can (and should! must?) be found in every creative field and any kind of design. Clikclk presents the work of passionate people and graphic, photographic, fashion and product designers. It feels very good to see talented people create everywhere and everything! And it makes you want to do the same!
Not only graphic design but also drawing, not only typography but also sculpture, the pieces of art posted on this blog give ideas of shapes and desires to create strong and wonderful images.
Mr Cup is Fabien Barral, a French (but English speaking/writing) graphic designer. On his blog, you can find articles primarily focused on identity and editorial design, with almost no text but a lot of great pictures.
Graphic design inspiration through type composition. Fonts in Use is one of the best places to discover fonts (indexed by name, format and designers) and the best way to use them. It is also a collaborative project: everyone can submit some type (your own, your friends’ one, your favorite…), as long as it’s “in use”!
Great tutorials
Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign and various type tutorials, in the spirit of our times but also fancy sometimes (candy, lipgloss, ice cube… typography).
Many textures tutorials and other original effects for use on typography and elsewhere. Except perhaps for the “how to create a photo-realistic steampunk style insect” tutorial. Extra Photoshop tips.
Clean tutorials with very clear and well illustrated steps + a large and a technical visual inspiration section. Want to create words covered in fur? Step this way.
Inspiring tutorials to easily create the same logos and posters you’ve seen on all the blogs you see in this post.
Type History
Hard to beat books when it comes to learning about history. Yes, I’m a bit old fashioned about that stuff! But for those who don’t have a good library nearby or are allergic to paper, you can find basic material at these two places.
Portraits/Interviews
Short video podcasts (font casts?) on type designers’ works, type professionals and FontShop family members portraits. The interviews are not frequently posted, but you can find some cool type tips on the Font Feed to make up for it! There’s a nice focus on foundries at the FontShop, too (have a look on Fontyou’s interview, written by Yves Peters).
In the Faces section, you will find interviews of type artists, scientists, and above all, designers. Elsewhere on this online platform, you will find tons of nice articles exploring the wonderful world of type!
myfonts.com/newsletters (Creative Characters)
Classic, essential and monthly, the MyFonts newsletter offers rich and illustrated interviews, which enable everyone to learn a lot about the great figures of today’s typography. You can subscribe to the newsletter or consult it (and all archives) online.
Type Events
On this German blog (available in English), many dates of festivals and conferences, but also books outputs and readings.
Everything that happens on the French graphic scene is broadcasted on the CNAP (Centre National des Arts Plastiques) digital platform. Study days, seminars, conferences, exhibitions and other graphics meetings all across the hexagon.
Fresh news and a well-stocked agenda, it does have a slightly restricted focus in that it only really covers events in Paris. But for every graphic fan and typelover, it’s definitely worth a look.
Lots of dates to discover, learn, talk about typography, between fans and professionals. Many exhibitions and releases here and there. Sadly, it’s all happening in France, maybe you should visit sometime and come and say hello!
The Type Directors Club promotes “excellency in typography for over 65 years”, and gives all the information about the best New York type exhibitions.
Auto Promo
Mise en abyme or self promotion, with its inspirational tumblr and its type blog, Fontyou also has some cool “dot coms” of our own!
Read Next: A brief history on the origins of letters
This post originally appeared on the Fontyou blog, and has been adapted with permission.
Image credit: Shutterstock
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