Ornament & Typography in Lisbon

I recently took a short trip to Lisbon and while I knew it was a city famous for it’s ornamental tile work, it was fantastic to see it up close, especially since so many of the patterns and flourishes have a lot of similarities to letterpress ornament. There were some great examples of the range of styles and effects at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (National Tile Museum), from the Moorish origins up to more recent experiments like the ones at the bottom here by Ivan Chermayeff from 1996 for the Tiles of the Ocean mural outside the Lisbon Aquarium.

It wasn’t all just tiles and ornament but I spotted some tasty signwriting too whilst wandering the streets and some very nice hand painted street names.