So here I want to talk about one of my interest which is metal typography. Metal typography is a form of logo that is designed to look rough and either geometric or organic. To the uninformed eye it may look unintelligible but it does have a following of people that can actual read and write in this style. With that in hand it is also important to remember that not everyone can read it but most people can recognise and remember the shapes and patterns.
Here are a few examples of work by artist Goreartx
All can be found at the Instagram page Goreartx
https://www.instagram.com/p/CETyLMOJv0w/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CETyLMOJv0w/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CETyLMOJv0w/
Another Detailed Work for @vulvodyniaslam ” January 5 2020
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKAiM4EJn1i/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKAiM4EJn1i/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKAiM4EJn1i/
Can’t read any of that?
that’s ok you are not really supposed to. heres a short video I found on TikTok explaining why
After posting this I had a conversation with my classmate Justin and he said something I found interesting. Instead of calling these designs calligraphy he referred to it as graffiti.
Although this style of art isn’t graffiti I definitely see where he saw the connection. They are both grass root movements in art, they are both made purposefully difficult to read and they do have stylistic similarities. Just cheek out these examples to see what I mean.
https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Nephelium/40667
Right: Excel, wild style piece (year unknown)
https://www.noecho.net/features/the-graffiti-and-hardcore-connection-by-freddy-alva
Both these images place symmetry, sharp geometric shapes. over lapping points and texture over readability. I believe its for the same reasons. they both don’t want to be able to be read by people outside of there own artistic community and they also want the writing itself to be the piece of art rather than just information.