Calligram Designers

Today, March 8th 2011, is the centenary celebration of the International Women's Day (1911-2011). We honor this special day with a gallery of calligrams where the woman, her beauty, strength, passion and force of nature are the main subjects. Enjoy! Motherhood and pregnancy Joni James Donna Summer Ben Duarri Screen Prince Oh, Julie (detail of the poster for the theatrical show "Il Blues di Malaussene") Laura Ruggeri 2010 Summer sale season campaign La Rinascente Calligram portrait Leslie Nichols "Go out " Advertisement for Woman's Day Magazine, 1953. All rights reserved. Federico Gene Advertising poster (70s) Vichy Water Advertising poster (60s) Lempereur Funny Girl - movie poster (60s)

See how curvaceous body text is used for these calligrams featured on the tags of the 2010 Summer collection at la Rinascente in Milan, Italy! Maybe it's becuase they follow very curvaceous feminine bodies? Maybe it's becuase they follow the 60s' fashion trend for the 2010 Summer? No matter, the result is very appealing and catchy. It's always very inspiring to see how the visual communication technique of calligrams is used more frequently for business and marketing. PS "sconto" in Italian means "discount" and "saldi" means "sale"

by Rick Ligas Some of us believe that the only real revolution is the personal revolution and that the only peace that exists in the world is our own internal peace of mind and heart. This calligram, titled Free your mind , by Laura Ruggeri , shows that belief in a clear and subtly powerful way. Looking at a world that seems so unpeaceful (even if, on any given day, there are billions more peaceful people than non peaceful people) we are reminded that peace starts within each of us and flows out to our family, friends and beyond. It doesn't exist anywhere else. This lovely calligram quietly reminds us that there is nothing mysterious or difficult to understand about world peace. It reminds us that world peace is simply our individual peace of mind and heart naturally projected into the world from our daily actions. If we want a peaceful world we have the responsibility to become and remain peaceful individuals. "Free your mind instead" comes from the lyrics of Revolution ...

by Ben Duarri-Screen Prince The third calligram in The Royalty Series , Jimi Hendrix , is entirely hand drawn lettering using lyrics from "Are You Experienced?" , from his break-through album of the same title. I drew from the phsychedelic posters of the time such as Martin Sharp's Bob Dylan cover print of Oz magazine,“Blowing in the Mind” and the work of John Van Hamersveld, Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelly, among others. Here, Jimi is elevated to a sun-god status, a messiah of rock and roll, with little sun rises in his eyes and mouth refering to the line “ we'll hold hands and then we'll watch the sun rise from the bottom of the sea... ” that makes up his jaw and arched moustache and side burns. The overall impression I wanted to acheive was that of an apparition or hallucination in a cloud of purple smoke and golden sunlight passing through it. So far, one edition of 20 of the classic gold -lightly blended with green edges at the beginning of the run- and purple...

by Ben Duarri-Screen Prince This, the first of my The Royalty Series , a portrait of the mercurial artist known as Prince . Using the lyrics of his dacefloor classic b-side to Lets Go Crazy - Erotic City, Prince at the height of his Purple Rain era circa 1984. The song was hard to single out from such a vast opus, but the reference to bringing to life a whole dark erotic personality of a city, ”funking in2 the dawn” and ”creamy thighs“ swayed it. I set out to make an image that was truly erotic only using the lyrics, face and eye contact with the viewer. I looked at lace and lingere, decorative motifs and flourishing from baroque to art-nouveau and blended it with Shakespearian calligraphy. All the letters were constructed with pen and ink and correction pen then photocopied. So far, only one edition on A2 stock printed in a tinted gold blend and purple and magenta blend has been printed along with three small Artist proof editions of seven, on coloured papers and soft col...

With this post we'll start showing the calligram art work by Ben Duarri-Screen Prince . by Ben Duarri All my work is hand drawn, mostly using dip pens, written in ink and screenprinted as a 2 colour screenprint in gold and blue or purple and maybe more colours. Calligrams stimulate both sides of the brain simultaniously creating balance and the opening of the 3rd eye. I am starting The Cult of the Calligram and I want to bring calligrams and the making of them to a new generation reared on mind supresants and imagination killers. I want to find ancient middle eastern calligrams and 20th century european calligrams and contemporary calligrams and calligrams from all time and space that ever were are and will be and gather them together and give a whole generation the tools to communicate with joy and passionate poetry that can only be achieved by creating calligrams. I have spent the last four years making and printing, making and printing and now my first series of calligrams: The...

Text by  Arianna Papini  - Calligram design by Laura Ruggeri Once upon a time there was Laura, a little woman with splendid fairy eyes and, at the same time, far far away, there was the mom of Laura. A great space divided them, but they had in common a subtle magic ability: they were able to buy the stars. [ continue... ] PS - Inspired by a true story.

by Laura Ruggeri STORY Here he is again, Antonio (Associazione Progetti Culturali), asking for another calligram. This time for the corporate image of a theatrical play that he and his friend Bruno Guerra wrote: Il blues di Monsieur Malaussene . "Laura, make it sexy!", Antonio said while he was walking away from my studio. "Sexy?" I thought, "Why sexy? What is this play about?". I close the door and went to read the play with curiosity. I chose the sexiest scene of the play for the calligram: Oh Julie . "What do you think, Antonio, is this sexy enough?" "Yes! I like it very much." So the sexy calligram went on street posters, flyers, invitation cards... and then in my portfolio online . I don't know why... or maybe I know exactly, but I was never comfortable with this calligram. "Too sexy...!? What if my yoga teacher see it? What can he think of me?" Many thoughts came to me for so many times, ...

by Laura Ruggeri STORY I designed this calligram in 1996 for the theatrical season Poeti Filosofi e Giullari. Antonio Molinari (Associazione Progetti Culturali), the actual client, came to my studio and asked: "Laura I need an unique image for the next season. You have a blank slate. Surprise me." I asked Antonio what was the main show of the season: "The Qohèlet - The Book of Ecclesiastes", he answered. I designed and patiently typeset by hand this calligram using all of the text of the book visualizing The Thinker of Rodin in type as a symbol of the human being who thinks "Completely meaningless, completely meaningless! Everything is meaningless" as Qohèlet said. It took 21 days to produce this calligram. TECHNIQUE The font used for the calligram is Helvetica Neue - from UltraLight to Black + ExtraBlack crafted just for this project. 7 weights in total. APPLICATION poster, libretto cover, flyer, invitation card