Seb Lester, illustrative typography

Jaleen Grove | April 30th, 2009

seb

Seb Lester is a typographer who designs fonts, animates with type, and creates typographical compositions like this one. He calls this category of typography “illustration”.  As an illustration scholar, I think this makes great debate fodder: does a figurative treatment of type evoke a precise enough visual statement to say that it illustrates the concept? Or does it just evoke a mood? If we call this kind of typography illustration, what does that make the other stuff we usually call illustration?

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  • Jaleen, Watch Gary Hustwit's Helvetica documentary and see if you still wonder the same thing. If we assume typography should be a purely functional means of communication, then why shouldn't we consider it illustration when we add flourishes, personality, and evoke imagery with it (in this case, flames)? It's a fine line I suppose, but I'm glad you posted this; I was about to post his work myself after stumbling across it in my feed reader.
  • It's an interesting point for sure, definitely fodder for debate. Graphic design and illustration both aim to communicate, but is this sample truly illustrating a concept? A lot of what passes for illustration these days doesn't communicate much of anything...so the lines are blurring. I guess you could say imagery is what propels an illustration, whereas typography is grounded in language. But they kind of overlap in realm of symbology. Chris Ware "illustrates" all of his type and his comics often resemble information graphics. I wonder what he would say on the matter of overlapping disciplines. Regardless, awesome work! Thanks for sharing.
  • Now, Johnny, did I say I disagreed with Seb? ;-)
    ...and, define "functional" - isn't illustration functional?
  • At the studio I'm with, we define ourselves as producing "Illustrated Type" (http://www.drawingbook.com.au/category.php?cate...) as it makes a clearer line between illustration and typography; the latter being more 'designy'.

    I think there's a big difference between the typography made by designers and illustrators, although the lines obviously do become blurred.
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