Inspiring 3D Typography Artworks

Jul 11 2010 7 Comments By Jacob Gube

Using three-dimensional objects–though made less arduous in the recent years due to the proliferation of 3D computer graphics software such as Maya, 3ds Max and even Adobe Illustrator–continues to be one of the more difficult styles of artwork. In this visual inspiration collection, we present to you a few exceptional pieces that use 3D typography well.

Author: Jacob Gube

Jacob Gube is the Co-Founder and Technical Editor of Design Instruct. He also runs the site called Six Revisions, another one of the team's websites. He's a web developer, designer, and author of books on web design and development. If you'd like to connect with him, check him out on Twitter: @sixrevisions or shoot him an email.

Walk in the Open Sky

Rebuild

NPM – Places of the World

Pool – Bridging the Gap

Matthew 28

Out Smoked

Student Stuff

2012

Metalface – Type Work

Gliding is Our Passion

Monteith’s Brewing Co.

Barcelona

(+) 100 Years of Alfa Romeo

MTV Bloom

H5

Art in Your World

Type Tips

Stone Age

Blackout Poster

Current Account

On Us

Instant

"M" Typographied

Hand Type Book

Typography with Helvetica

Oriental Collide

Wooden Name Puzzles

Space Monkey

Helvetica Architectural Type Design 1

In_The_Know

Tutorials on 3D Typography

Inspired? Here are a few of our tutorials on creating 3D text that you might want to read.

Make a Retro-Space Typography Poster with Colorful Lights

Creating Retro Folded Typography Using Photoshop

A Guide to Creating 3D Text in Adobe Illustrator

7 Comments (Add yours)

Owen Yue

Jul 11 2010

Wow, these are great! There’s a great range of variety! All of a very high standard.

Reply to comment

Jack Rugile

Jul 11 2010

Contributor

Awesome. My favorite is the Helvetica architectural one. I really want to start working with 3D text more. It has been kind of a scary thing for me, I almost always use flat text.

Do you suggest creating the text shapes by hand with elite Photoshop skills? Using Illustrator’s 3D tools? Or is working with an actual 3D program ideal?

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Jacob Gube

Jul 11 2010

Editorial Team

This is a tough question to answer. The reason is this: It’s much easier to use a 3D program for 3D text versus by hand using Photoshop. However, learning a 3D program can take a while as well, and if you’re just going to use it for 3D text occasionally, then the cost of the software and the time to learn makes it a not-so-good choice.

Here’s my suggestion: check out the tutorials I linked to in the post. The first one uses 3D software and Photoshop, the second one uses Photoshop (almost literally by hand because it asks you to create a real-world model), and the 3rd one uses Illustrator.

Those should give you some insight on the processes of making 3D typography using the three scenarios you mentioned.

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Joshua Johnson

Jul 13 2010

Try Sketchup + Photoshop. Sketchup gives you basic 3D with a very small learning curve compared to other 3D apps.
Here’s a tut: http://designshack.co.uk/articles/graphics/create-stunning-3d-text-free-with-sketchup

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