To the typographer, Flickr is an ever-changing crowd-sourced museum of typography. Here’s a quick visitor’s guide to 10 of the best collections.

1. Typography and Lettering

Going more than 14,000 members strong, Typography and Lettering’s group pool would more accurately be described as a sea. Here you can find a kaleidoscope of type-based images, ranging from snapshots to screenshots to handwriting samples to letter art. The only common thread is an enjoyment of the art of type.

2. Sign City

Sign making poses a fascinating challenge to the typographer. How can you sell an idea or establishment based entirely on font choice, while retaining enough legibility to be read from a distance? In Sign City, you can find the best, worst and most interesting solutions to this design dilemma.

3. Typophile

The Flickr companion to Typophile.com’s juggernaut font community is everything you’d expect — an open-minded pool of experimental design contributions with a strong presence of expert designers. Join this group for the eye candy, but stay for the intelligent discussion section.

4. Design & Typography

Unlike most groups, D&T forbids finished portfolio pieces. The focus here is all on resource sharing and the process of incorporating type into visual design. Come here to get inside the head of other designers and typographers, and share some of your own inspirations.

5. Graphic Design and Typography

This group does indeed accept portfolio pieces and focuses on catchy, clever and concise applications of typography in graphic design. Come here to ponder the iconic power of type and letters.

6. One Letter

Typography is often inextricably linked with context. What will we learn about the design of type when that context is removed? Find out on One Letter, which showcases striking images of single letters, each one an overlooked masterpiece.

7. Experimental Typography

Had enough of digital fonts? Need an organic jolt and fresh ideas about line and spacing? Try Experimental Typography, a group that focuses exclusively on hand-rendered type. There are a number of obviously digital cheaters on this group, but the esoteric beauty of Experimental Typography’s handmade lettering more than makes up for the need to weed through.

8. Hand Drawn Type

Though it ostensibly has the same rules as Experimental Type (and the same digital cheaters), the Hand Drawn Type group delivers in a low-fi, indie rock style. Go here to see rough-hewn modern letterforms with calculated, expressive amateurishness. Stay for the embroidery.

9. Calligraphy

Though hand rendering is not the rule here, the Calligraphy group displays a bold collection of hand-lettered calligraphic work, both historic and modern. As a bonus, this group has little duplication with the main typography show-and-tell groups. Come here to see beautiful classic linework and type composition.

10. Found Type

This group is a never-fail treasury of inspiration: the everyday signs, pages and penmanship that move us. Found Type boasts a more diverse set of styles and applications than most typography groups. Here you find cornerstones, tombstones, cake, currency and graffiti; not to mention the odd narcissist who sneaks his own T-shirt design into the pool. You’ll forgive him, because who wouldn’t want to be included in this collection? Found Type is a repository of unsung masters.

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Tom Chu

Tom Chu is the SEO manager at PsPrint, a company specializing in online printing. PsPrint offers an array of free tools, for example it lets you make your own business cards online.

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