Type Delight: The Exploded Alphabet

The Exploded Alphabet is a series of letters illustrated as exploded diagrams, created by designer and illustrator Matt Stevens. These designs reminded us of paging through Grandpa's old Popular Mechanics magazines filled with diagrams and instructions on how to build things yourself.

Matt is a talented creative working from Charlotte, North Carolina. His focus is on brand identity programs and illustration, and we particularly love his work with typography, this set of alphabet letters being our favourite. Go to Matt's website for more.

Type Delight: Masterful Jordan Metcalf

Elegant. Sensitive. Precise. This is how we would summarise the tremendously wonderful typography work by Cape Town based designer, illustrator and artist Jordan Metcalf. Jordan was named the ADC Young Gun in 2013 (a competition celebrating the talents of young creative professionals under the age of 30), and holds an impressive portfolio of work completed for international clients and agencies. 

His work emphasises the aesthetic appeal that letterforms can have, and in many cases the typography is treated more like it’s an intricate illustration, rather than mere copy to convey information. 

Go to his website, his Instagram profile or his Behance portfolio to gawk at some more of his masterful work!

Type Delight: The work of Stefan Kunz

It is always a delight to see Stefan Kunz's inspiring lettering work. Not only is the craftsmanship something to enjoy, but the content of his work is always uplifting and motivational. And yes, he really inspires us to pick up the pens and get back to the sketchbooks again to better our hand at lettering and drawing. Based in Zurich, Stefan's work ranges from motivational quotes and Bible verses, art murals, art prints, his sketchbooks and the occasional object also gets donned with his masterwork. He documents his work on his Instagram page, and you can also check out his website here.

Type Delight : Melbourne Typeface

We absolutely love this font. Melbourne is a clean and compact modern san-serif font, and fantastic with almost everything. Melbourne was designed by Marco Müller with the help of Professor Jovica Veljović from the Department Design of the HAW Hamburg, and developed during a study semester in Australia.

If you would like to explore it for yourself, go and download it for free here.

Type Delight : Lost Type Co-Op Foundry

The Lost Type Co-Op is a type foundry where you can select and download beautifully crafted typefaces, and you can decide what you want to pay for it! You can even decide to type in "$0" for a free download in this pay what you want model. All funds go directly to the designers.

The foundry was founded by Riley Cran and Tyler Galpin and has since grown to distribute fonts from various other designers from all over the world.

Go and check out the Lost Type Co-Op here, and if you like some of the fonts, hit the download button and pay what you want for it!

Here are some of our favourites:

Ranger by EVAN HUWA

Blanch by ATIPUS

Lavanderia by JAMES T. EDMONDSON

Haymaker by TREVOR BAUM

Highlands by TYLER GALPIN

Maven by JOE PRINCE

Mensch by MORGAN KNUTSON

Nelma by MISSY AUSTIN

Pompadour by ANDY MANGOLD

Ribbon by DAN GNEIDING

Sullivan by JASON MARK JONES

Type Delight : Darren Booth

We're pretty sure that most typography fanatics out there know the work of illustrator and letterer Darren Booth. His work is a combination of painting, illustration and collage to create beautiful typographical designs that are tactile, decorative and beautifully colored. Darren's unique style is well recognized in the design and illustration industry with much acclaim and awards.

Below are a few of our favorite illustration / lettering pieces. To explore more of his work, you can browse through Darren Booth's portfolio.