A while ago I did a showcase where I highlighted some great dark illustration examples. The response was so good I decided to do something in the same vein and took a look at illustrated typography on a dark background.
Just like the in the dark illustration showcase you’ll notice that dark backgrounds allow the subject to really stand out. Colors will “pop” more and the use of lighting effects becomes much more dramatic than it would have been on a lighter background.
This showcase is divided in four parts. First up are the typographical illustrations that make good use of the dark background in respect to light and color. Below that are sections for typography made from light, metallic effect typography and typography flavored up through smoke.
The pieces below make great use of vivid colors and gorgeous light effects. If you want to see more from an artist just click the name to check the site out.
Craig Shields
Craig uses dark backgrounds and a black and white base to make his subtle use of color really stand out.
Alex Trochut
Alex’s Beautiful decay is colorful on any background but the pure black background makes it liven up like no other background color could.
Go Media
Funky colors get a bit more serious on a black background in this piece by Go media.
Kliment Kalchev
Kliment uses a fruity gradient in his logo and accompanying illustrations to set a playful yet serious mood.
Nicolas Alexander
This piece has a great sense of motion and creative use of typography.
Pablo alFieri
Pablo has so much great typography work he could fill a whole showcase by himself. Make sure to check out his other work!
Rodrigo Braga
A colorful an heavily detailed piece that gains grounding from a black background.
Theo Aartsma
Theo’s awesome work is so full of detail that these small size images don’t do them justice. Head over to his Depthcore page to see them full size.
ShinBinary
Nik shows that while vivid colors can really stand out on a dark background, you don’t always have to go that route to impress.
You can use lighting effects to liven up a typographic illustration, but why not simply turn the text into light? Some examples below.
Guilherme Marconi
Guilherme’s illustration has a neon effect on all of the type.
Theo Aartsma
Another one by Theo. This is probably a made up symbol but one thing is for sure, it’s a beauty.
Tony Ariawan
Tony’s light streak illustrated type has a magical feel to it.
Mark Mustaine
Mark Mustaine created these by hand using slow shutter photography. Very impressive!
What’s shiny and lends itself very well to being illustrated in combination with stylized light and reflections? Metallic substances of course!
Alex Trochut
Alex makes the gold 3d type really jump from the background in this piece.
Emeric Trahand
Trust the KDU? Maybe, I’ll trust Emeric though, that’s for sure!
Rodrigo Braga
Rodrigo doesn’t overdo it with the reflections and ensures the bottom illustration radiates pure class.
Lastly we have smoke effects. Smoke stands out very well on a dark background and can really set a mood. I couldn’t find that many smoke examples unfortunately.
Von
Von’s piece isn’t really smoke but has a similar look. The piece gives me an uneasy and eerie feeling (in a good way of course).
Daniel Gordon
Daniel combines smoke with a strange effect on the type to set a strong mood.
Thanks for stopping by. If you liked this post a Stumble or a Digg would be much appreciated!
August 19th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
wow, beautiful post. i especially love the neon letters from marconi!
August 19th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Awesome list, there are some new things I haven’t seen before. Thanks for including one of Go Media’s typography pieces. I’ve posted the link to your article to my twitter followers!
August 19th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Agreed Jeff!! Some stuff I have not seen. I found it through your twitter feed which I am now hooked on.
August 19th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
That’s some amazing stuff, I especially like the Empire one.
August 20th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Great stuff! :)
August 20th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Simply beautiful.
August 20th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
I cant get enough typography, awesome post, bookmarking for reference.
Max | Design Shard
August 20th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Such a great post - some really incredible features and of course, inspiring typography. Great work and stumbled :)
August 21st, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Wonderful! Simple type and a tones of great imagination bring us real pack of wonders.
August 24th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
I’ve done a bit of type design as well. Take a look at my branding section. there’s a Book title for ‘The Book Of The Forever Dead’ that some of you may like.
http://www.onemannbrand.co.uk
Enjoy! and don’t be afraid to email me feedback from my site!
Lawrence.
August 26th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
just came across this site from browzing here and there. BRILLIANT!! ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!! each pic has a life of its own.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I just came across this site while stumbling here and there. EXCELLENT!! ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!! each picture has a stunning effect.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Looks nice, thanks. thumbs up for you in stumble :)
September 1st, 2008 at 6:32 am
Good collection of nice typography. I like the Nicolas Alexander piece.
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:01 am
wow these are pretty cool..i especially like the “forget the past look to the future”
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:27 am
Nice collection you can find some more at:
http://picks.wittysparks.com/tagged/Typography
September 3rd, 2008 at 5:12 pm
enjoyed looking at every single one! really good collection of some great uses of typography. dugg and stumbled!
September 5th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Cheers, is such an interesting topic! It’s hard to find good information on business letters samples but it’s all here!
September 20th, 2008 at 3:44 am
Great post! I LOVE Craig Shields and Alfieri.
Also, the smoke text is flippin to die for!
Incredible work.
September 21st, 2008 at 12:07 am
Also stumbled here. Simply amazing. I love the ones by Theo Aartsma. Anywhere I could go to learn how to do something like this?
October 4th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Wow, so much inspiration from this post! Definitely gave me a few ideas of my own.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Wow - That was soem amazing images - I guess there is no limit to creativity!