Fontable Letter & Number Tables Spell Out C-O-O-L.

Designers Alessandro Canepa & Andrea Paulicelli of Italy's Mamadesignlab have created Fontable, a collection of alphanumeric metal tables.



The new concept in modular elements brings a revolution to the world of furnishing accessories, building upon a graphic matrix to turn it into an item for interior design.





FONTABLE are alphanumeric elements reproducing letters from A to Z in lower and upper case and numbers from 0 to 9 which become modular tables. Each element acquires three dimensions and personality and can be played around with, to customize ever changing and dynamic shapes.





Tables are made in steel sheet with lacquered varnishing in white, black and red, with legs in anodized aluminum of adjustable height allowing to overlap table surfaces. Special finishing and further color variations are available on demand.

Produced in a small atelier outside of Milan under the supervision of Alessandro & Andrea the tables are made from steel sheet with lacquered varnishing in white, black and red. Legs are in anodized aluminum and are height adjustable, allowing overlap of table surfaces.

You can purchase the tables from Outdoorz Gallery.

Transforming Modern Architect's Works Into 3D Typefaces

Designer Chris Labrooy, inspired by his design heroes; architects Tadao Ando, Zaha Hadid, Toyo Ito, Oscar Niemeyer, Frank Gehry and designer Ettore Sottsass, has created 3D typography based on their works using computer rendering and illustration.

Tadao Ando 3D Type
Typography design based on the architecture of Tadao Ando. Chris chose his favourite Tadoa buildings as a basis for developing these expressive letter forms. Included are: Chikatsu Asuka historical museum / Water temple / Naoshima contemporary art museum annex:





Zaha Hadid 3D Type
Typography design based on the architecture of Zaha Hadid. With this piece, Chris focused on capturing Zaha's formal language rather than reference specific buildings because he claims to be interested in her drawings and paintings from the eighties.:




Oscar Niemeyer 3D Type
Typography design based on the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer. Chris picked his favourite Niemeyer buildings as a basis for developing these expressive letter forms. Included are : Cathedral of Brasília / Niterói Contemporary Art Museum / Ibirapuera Park theatre / Oscar Niemeyer Museum.






Toyo Ito 3d type
Letter forms inspired by Toyo Ito's impressive works. The combination of simple forms with inricate perforations is what excited Chris about Toyo's work. These letters are based on : TOD's omotesando / Tower of winds / Taichung opera house / Mikimoto department store:




Frank Gehry 3d Type
Typography design based on the architecture of Frank Gehry. Chris picked his favourite Gehry buildings as a basis for developing some expressive letter forms. Included are: Guggenheim Bilboa / Aerospace museum / Gehry house / experience music project / dancing house prague:







Although not an architect. Ettore Sottsass' memphis style designs inspired Chris to create a font.

Ettore Sottsass 3d Type
Letter forms inspired by Sottsass's early 80's furniture. This work is Chris' attempt to revisit the past, get inspired, and share with people new and interesting interpretations on familiar historical works:





His Helvetica 3D Type does the opposite of the above works. In this font, Chris has turned a typeface into architecture:




For Bauhaus, Chris took a design style and sensibility and also turned it into a 3d rendering of a building:




Also worth noting is his "Playful Type" made of sex toys:

See more of Chris Labrooy's fabulous work here.

Via Architizer

A Product With Character: Old Sign Letters Are Given New Lights & A New Life.

Character of Finland is a company that rescues old typographic signage from demolition, chooses the most stylish letters and turns them into individual design objects that they offer for sale. After replacing the old neon tubes with LEDs, they add a transformer, install a power cord and give them a new life cycle that you can purchase for yourself.

Some examples of their products:




Numbers, letters and glyphs are amongst their offerings you can buy here



Character Oy
Tel . + 358 9 682 2002
Vuorimiehenkatu 16
00140 Helsinki
Finland

Send E-mails In Your Own Handwriting With Pilot's Online Personal Fontmaker.

Pilot pens has brought the personal touch to impersonal e-mail communication by creating an online site that allows you to personalize a font based on your own handwriting and then use that font to compose and send an e-mail.



You simply go to their website where you register and then print out a blank template. Write your own letters in the spaces in the template and upload it to the site via a scanner, digital camera or webcam. Once the site processes your individual letters of the alphabet, you can finesse each letter by either erasing parts of it or adding to the letter.

Print out the template:

Use a pen [preferably a Pilot pen. After all, this is the way they are marketing their product] to write the characters in your own hand:

Complete the template:


Capture the template by using a web scanner, a digital camera or a webcam and upload it to their site where they will process it. The computer then digitizes your font:

And you can finesse each character if you wish:


Save and then name the font, and voila! You're now ready to send an e-mail [from their site, of course] to anyone with an e-mail address in your own personalized handwritten font.



A video of the process:


Do it here.

Looking for your own font from your handwriting for more than e-mails? Check out fontifier.com, where for $10 you can create your own and download it immediately.