Even non-graphic designers know that type is everywhere: fonts and
typefaces fill everything we consume or inhabit. They communicate,
inform, sell, explain . . . and yet finding serendipitous letterforms in
the least likely locations can also excite and inspire. Once
experienced, it is impossible not to see letters in anything from
forests to housing projects, from leaves to brickwork. The eye becomes
accustomed to seeing a world built of letters.
Unlike most books on typography that present the "best" and most refined
examples, the object here is to reveal the lost or unseen typographies
in nature and our cities. From machine-made and sculptural forms to
flora and fauna, from the fading ghost types on buildings from a
pre-digital age to the subterranean forms found beneath our urban
centers, from crowd-sourced creations to the popular vernacular, there
is a universe of letterforms all around us.