In Krakow, Poland, graffiti has a repurposed agenda.

The attention or awareness to typography has recently surged thanks to films like Helvetica and interest in graphic design. In a similar fashion graffiti has risen in popularity not just as a form of vandalism but as art and expression. Taking these two elements graphic designer Aleksandra Toborowicz has created a mural that represents a book case lined with various Polish classics. Promoting reading and literature the Typomural Literary Graffiti Mural coincides with the Free Reading Zone campaign. Typomural-Literary Graffiti mural is located in Krakow, Poland in a revitalizing area of the city. Painted on a wall of a housing project, the gigantic mural (150m2) promotes reading and book culture and supports the ongoing public awareness campaign Free Reading Zone. The expansive mural evokes the idea of a bookcase filled with all sorts of titles and book types. Each title is written in a unique typeface, including new typefaces designed for the project. The letters create a typographic collage painted using a variety of techniques: stencil, free hand and calligraphy.

The types of fonts varied as did the methods of applying them. Everything from calligraphy to templates were used.

The group, New Art Foundation ZNACZY SIE, is a polish word meaning, to signify, to matter, to mean something, to bring something to notice. This graffiti-typographical mural is certainly something to notice, especially with the importance of the message it sends.

I would be interested to see how this kind of mural would fair in graffiti stricken New York.