Colour and lettering are staples of our everyday life, yet it seems that these two worlds are keen to stay independent, never sharing their respective qualities. Is there really not a single application of colour that could enrich alphabet design?

Ask a type designer, and the reply is firm: to function, a letter must be drawn in black and white, for the strongest possible contrast with its substrate. Colour isn't even an issue. Only form matters, and with reason: a typeface must efface itself behind the message it conveys. But if this can understandably be applied to body fonts, one can also imagine a title indulging in more fantasy and, in particular, embracing colour.

Colour has been ubiquitous in the history of mankind since the first huntergatherers, tens of thousands of years ago... but type designers have stayed on the sidelines. Only a few - who sometimes are more graphic designers than they are typographers - have ventured to create alphabets in several colours.

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Above banner: Cyril Cohen's typeface 'Sens'
Above image: Hudson-Powell, Responsive alphabet
Both as featured in Conceiving type in colour by Thomas L'Excellent. étapes: international, issue 19, spring 2010