You may have heard about architecture parlante – literally, talking architecture: The architecture of buildings that, in their plans or elevations, create an image that suggests their functions, like the big doughnut near LAX or the big duck in Long Island. Well, there is also typography parlante: The design of which suggests its reason for being. The famous ones are icicles on letters to indicate an ice machine or fire on letters to suggest, perhaps, a fire sale. There are many others. Considered kitsch by some, there is also an art to making letters speak to function. Here is one I recently came across in a Speedball textbook. It clearly does not need an introduction.
