I am looking for pictures of words, where can I find them?

May 6, 2014 9:14 AM

I thought it would be easier to find this! I am looking for pictures of words. I want to avoid pictures of words created with "fonts" and want to find things that people found in the wild - signs, graffiti, that sort of thing.

I think Flickr search is broken right now because I get zero hits for things like fish, ink, and friend. Searching on pinterest gets a bunch of stuff that is like I described above - fonts.

posted by jmkeuning to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

One search term that might help is "found words".
posted by jacquilynne at 9:21 AM on May 6, 2014

For your suggested key words, I'm getting top-row or second-row results with google images e.g. "fish sign" (no quotes in search). Graffiti is almost as awesome, results-wise. Some of them are really cool! Some may give you false positives when the words are closely associated (ink and graffiti?). For sources: tattoos?
posted by whatzit at 9:32 AM on May 6, 2014

Best answer: A Google search for "flickr sign word groups" turns up these Flickr groups and more:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/one-word/
https://www.flickr.com/groups/wording/pool/
https://www.flickr.com/groups/word/
https://www.flickr.com/groups/90496304@N00/
https://www.flickr.com/groups/52240340482@N01/
https://www.flickr.com/groups/2183270@N23/

Do that search without quotes on Google and you'll get even more.
posted by Mo Nickels at 9:52 AM on May 6, 2014

Check Wikimedia Commons.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:58 AM on May 6, 2014

Glyph City, Lettering and Interesting Type in Detroit via
posted by hydrophonic at 10:52 AM on May 6, 2014

Type designer Tobias Frere-Jones heard your call and has an insane roundup of lettering/hand painted typography from around the world.
posted by O9scar at 11:56 PM on May 6, 2014