Typographic Christmas Presents

Is it November 26 already? This means Christmas now officially is less than a month away! Time to look around for some presents for your type-lovin' partner, friend, or relative. Or to add to your own wish-list – you're not really looking forward to receiving that flowery T-shirt or Kevin Federline album. These few items are a start, but if anybody knows any other tips please drop us a line. If they fit in our little compilation we'll add them here.

It has been dubbed as "Easily the most innovative alphabet book of the year, if not the decade… Beyond clever." by The Washington Post, and indeed it looks fantastic. Somewhere between pop-up book and art object, Marion Bataille's ABC3D makes 26 three-dimensional letters move and morph in most surprising ways. Even the cover has a lenticular illustration that changes depending on the angle you look at it. Great stuff.

ABC3D from Pablo on Vimeo.

Tired of lame tear-off calendars with stale jokes or dumb proverbs? Typodarium is the perfect remedy. The world's first typographic tear-off calendar showcases 365 different type designs. The front shows the date set in a different font for every day, while the back holds information on the typeface and its designer. Fifty foundries and designers from all over the world were invited to contribute; amongst them 2Rebels, DSType, The Font Bureau, Inc., FontFont, Fountain, Mark Simonson Studio, P22, primetype, TypeTogether, Typothèque, Underware, URW++, … Concept and design by Magma in collaboration with Raban Ruddigkeit.

No one ever said checking the time needed to be boring. The Font Clock – designed by Sebastian Wrong and published by Established and Sons – is a 21st century take on the British 24 hour clock design icon. Twelve different fonts are printed within the mechanism of the clock providing a random, mixed display of graphic language within a single time piece. Available in three sizes.

There's no doubt these typographic pillows will look fabulous in any discerning type-lover's interior. The eclectic designs that make up the collection of Bonjour Mon Coussin are inspired by found vintage documents (postcards, an 1873 wedding certificate, old advertisements, …) or drawn from the creators' own world (travels, unusual objects, …). Besides the Characters, Type, and Cash themes there are also a number of type-related designs to be found in other sections, like Alphakids, Pliages, Tickets, Radio, and Camex.

This is a major bummer. What better way to protect the delicate surfaces in said type-lover's interior than by using these typographic coasters to put your glasses on? Yet the Eurolite Wood Type Coasters are currently out of stock, and it looks like the ACD Acrylic Type Coasters even completely disappeared from the Supermarket website. The Type Collage Coasters by Green Chair Press are nice but somehow lack in the awesomeness department.

The last item in the list (for now) is only for French-speaking typophiles and linguists, yet is it so beautiful that I definitely wanted to share it with you. Fabrice Mazza's Lettrenrébus (literally "letter picture puzzles") is a book with graphic and typographic riddles. Last summer French type designer and typographer Jean-Baptiste Levée created more than 200 original letter illustrations specifically for this publication. They are entirely hand made with pencil, brush and Rotring, and they are simply gorgeous. You can see many examples – both sketches on tracing paper and finished pieces – in a gallery on Jean-Baptiste's website. Go check them out, what are you waiting for? ;)