Gorgeous Typographic Illustrations for Wired Magazine

Yesterday French type designer extraordinaire Jean François Porchez made me discover the work of Timba Smits. The article Rory Sutherland knows how to save marketing published Tuesday on Wired features a dozen of his entirely typographic illustrations. Using an bright colour palette Timba updates a vintage Americana carnival-like style to visualise quotes from the author of the article.

Even though the lively typography is very eclectic the overall impression is surprisingly coherent, and gorgeous to look at. The type choices and typographic treatment draw from as diverse sources as sign painting, and what we Europeans usually label as "Wild West" typography. Timba Smits managed to make the reading process genuinely entertaining – hopping from word to word makes the reader discover ever-changing typographic images: from extra bold fonts to three-dimensional words to brush scripts to tall skyline faces to monster fonts to Tuscans to square faceted sans serifs. View the full series of illustrations in the Wired article (click the gallery and don't forget to zoom!), and then head to Timba Smits' website to discover his other typographic, design and illustration work.