Designers resuscitate dying words with creative type

The Dead Words is a typography design project kicked off by Karen To in 2010 as a way to express her love of both words and type. The graphic designer, illustrator and letterer is driven to promote and commemorate no-longer-used words before they die out completely and are forgotten forever. To explains: "For over centuries, thousands of English words have been created, modified, and removed. Through this blog of lettering, we rediscover and interpret stories of dead words. All letterings in here are words that were once used in our language. Today, most of them are omitted from common English dictionaries."

The project has generated much interest in the design community with well over 100 contributions to the project and counting, including everything from handcrafted to kinetic typography... Here is just a small selection of the beautiful submissions, with many more to see on the website.

Hypenemious by David McLeod

Hypenemious by David McLeod

Aretaloger by Rob Clarke

Aretaloger by Rob Clarke

Philargyrist by Simon H. / Studio Ace of Spade

Philargyrist by Simon H. / Studio Ace of Spade

Gutturniform by Lydia Nichols

Gutturniform by Lydia Nichols

Quadrimular by Masato Nakada

Quadrimular by Masato Nakada

Jungible by Baimu Studio

Jungible by Baimu Studio

Leporicide by Brian Grossman

Leporicide by Brian Grossman

Maleolent by Andrea Austoni

Maleolent by Andrea Austoni

Ptochology by Masato Nakada

Ptochology by Masato Nakada

Mecography by Carl Wiens

Mecography by Carl Wiens

See many more fantastic examples on The Dead Words blog.

Liked this? Read these!

What do you think of The Dead Words project? Perhaps you've contributed! Tell us in the comments!

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of eight full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Ecommerce Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Editor, Digital Art and 3D Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson and Ecommerce Writer Beth Nicholls and Staff Writer Natalie Fear, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The 3D World and ImagineFX magazine teams also pitch in, ensuring that content from 3D World and ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq.