Get a little too artsy with skate obstacles and you might end up with objects that just aren’t all that fun or functional for their intended purpose. But when Rotterdam design studio Opperclaes collaborated with furniture maker Jeroen van Sluis to bring its signature typographic art into three dimensions, the result spelled success for skaters hitting the city’s streets for Rotterdam Street Culture Weekend and the PowWow Rotterdam street art event.

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A post shared by Opperclaes Rotterdam (@opperclaes)

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A post shared by Opperclaes Rotterdam (@opperclaes)

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A post shared by Opperclaes Rotterdam (@opperclaes)

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A post shared by Opperclaes Rotterdam (@opperclaes)

“Character Type” is a series of 3D typographic installations placed in various parts of Rotterdam last fall, bringing interactive sculptures to previously empty public spaces. The enormous wooden letters seem to rise out of the pavement at odd angles, offering curves and ledges that ultimately spell out the words “ENDLESS,” “STAMINA” and “WAYS.” A fourth installation spelling out “LINES” appeared indoors for the three-day “Creating Lines” skateboarding event, which included an exhibition, full-length skate video and panel discussions.

The whole thing was captured on film by Sami El Hassani, if you want to see how the letter-shaped skate objects performed.

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A post shared by Opperclaes Rotterdam (@opperclaes)

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A post shared by Opperclaes Rotterdam (@opperclaes)

Whenever oversized letters appear in the city of Rotterdam, you can probably bet that Opperclaes is involved. In addition to the “Character Type” project, they’ve produced street furniture, murals and a fun pedestrian crosswalk on the Westblaak.

Check out 15 typographic art projects and a collection of eminently skateable architecture.

The language of letters themselves is revealed when we look at their shapes as artistic forms and experiment with the materials we use to create them, whether using them as the basis of furniture design, climbing walls or intricately cut works of paper art. These typography-based experiments encourage us to look at the written word in a whole new way.

Typographic Climbing Wall by Gordon Young

4,000 recycled plastic climbing holds join up with 1,000 sea-themed novelty climbing holds to form a typographic wall spelling the name Barry Island in the UK. Gordon Young transformed a sea wall into an interactive landmark for a previously neglected corner of the shore.

Typographic Paper Cuts by Annie Vought

Sometimes consisting of sentences and sometimes just a jumble of letters, these typographic works are painstakingly hand-cut from paper by artist Annie Vought. A piece called ‘Gosh I’ve Been Here Before’ measures 53” wide and consists of sentences strung together in circles like the rings of a tree.

Playing with 3D-Printed Letter For by Thomas Wirtz

Designer Thomas Wirtz created his own typeface, 3D-printed a series of acronyms like ‘BTW,’ ‘FYI’ and POV’ and used them as forms for experimentation with physical media like ink, dye, fire and colored gases.

Letter-Shaped Desks by Benoit Challand

Individual works stations are designed in the shapes of letters to spell out messages in an open-plan office environment, where you tend to either find zero privacy or a maze of cubicles. Designer Benoit Challand aims to celebrate the beauty of large-scale typography while bringing some fun into these spaces, demonstrating the concept with tiny models.

Legible Graffiti by Mathieu Tremblin

Ugly spray-painted tags are a dime a dozen, and almost always illegible. Artist Mathieu Tremblin basically took any artistry out of the tags by converting them into basic typeface, showing us how nonsensical it all is when simply spelled out.

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Art Of Typography 13 Text Based Designs Spell It All Out

If you cannot spot this giant  bus shelter in Baltimore, you may have bigger problems than missing the bus and getting to work on time.

Standing 14 feet high, the signage-plus-bus-stop spells out B-U-S in big capital letters, providing spaces to sit (on all three characters) as well as overhead protection from the rain (in the B and S). Each letter is also seven feet wide.

Created by mmmm, “BUS is a place to enjoy, interact, and meet while waiting for the bus. It is a leisure space in the middle of the rhythm of the city, a fun place for the inevitable waiting at a bus stop. BUS is made with wood and steel, materials that are typically used to build urban furniture.”

The idea is to work with simple, conventional and durable materials to create something both functional but potentially iconic – a place that anyone will know when you mention it. Like other guerrilla bus stops and functional urban shelters, it certainly stands out, but also seems more straightforward and civic.

“The three letters of BUS are big enough to accommodate two to four people each and protect them from rain, sun, wind, and inclement weather. They allow people to assume different postures of sitting or standing while waiting for the bus. The S allows people to lie back while they wait, and the B provides shelter.”

From their website, this is “a permanent public art project supported by Creative Alliance and Southeast Community Development Corporation in conjunction with the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC), and SPAIN arts & culture. It is part of the initiative TRANSIT, Creative Placemaking with Europe in Baltimore.”