The "visual onomatopoeia" for words like sizzling, hot, chilly, etc.

January 7, 2015 7:13 PM

Sometimes, on restaurant menus or in other media that I'm not recalling at the moment, the text styling will reflect the meaning of the word. Examples off the top of my head: sizzling, hot, chilly. Here's an example in an advertisement. What would you call this phenomenon? The most apt description I can come up with is visual onomatopoeia, but is there a better word for this?
posted by arsgratia to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

“I don't think that type should be expressive at all. I can write the word 'dog' with any typeface and it doesn't have to look like a dog. But there are people that [think that] when they write 'dog' it should bark.”

― Massimo Vignelli

I always think of it as "barking" text, because of this quote. Just a personal thing, not a recognized phrase.
posted by Juliet Banana at 7:16 PM on January 7, 2015 [7 favorites]

Representative typography.
posted by John Cohen at 7:21 PM on January 7, 2015

Decorative or display fonts is probably too broad, but it covers these.
posted by klangklangston at 7:39 PM on January 7, 2015

Figurative typography.
posted by nanook at 7:59 PM on January 7, 2015 [2 favorites]

Here's a debate about the name which includes the charming coinage "fontomatopoeia."
posted by Miko at 3:40 PM on January 8, 2015 [2 favorites]