One form of visual resource that tends to get short shrift is typography, the art and arrangement of lettering. While previously used almost entirely for paper or sign based work, in the electronic age typography has become a ubiquitous part of our digital environment as well. In large measure typography tends to slip by almost unnoticed–being sort of like an umpire at a baseball game that remains invisible as long as it is performing its job well. That said, there are a number of resources on the web that take a closer look at this overlooked corner of design, and one of our favorites is we love typography, a searchable blog with pictures of assorted interesting typography from across the history of the art.

Just a quick hit today to point out the the International Architecture Awards for the Best New Global Design 2009 have been unveiled by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design. Always an interesting look at what’s current in the world of architecture, this year the winners range from well known folks like Sean Godsell and Zaha Hadid to lesser renowned firms such as Brazil’s Studio MK27, China’s wsp architects or Vietnam’s Vo Trong Nghia Company. Well worth a look if you want to see the sort of thing that’s garnering attention these days in international building design.

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Spezify is a new search tool that mixes and matches results and seeks to get away from the endless list of text links displayed by most search engines. When one does searches with Spezify, all sorts of formats will be interspersed in what comes back after a search–text, images, video and audio may well be all what comes back from a keyword search as is evidenced by the screenshot above that came from entering the term “Kengo Kuma” for the Japanese architect.

The New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery is a huge resource containing over 700,000 images of assorted subjects from various parts of the world. While there are of course large numbers of pictures that are associated with the Big Apple, there are all sorts of other treasures there as well–such as the early Japanese photograph pictured above which comes from a set of 100 early Asian prints and photos. Another interesting angle to this collection is that way that the NYPL’s pictures have also been put into a Flickr set so that the public can help tag and aid in cataloging the institution’s many images.

Inspired by the recent demolition of a modernist house by architect Paul Rudolph as well as the nearby location of Philip Johnson’s seminal Glass House, The National Trust for Historic Preservation has partnered with the New Canaan Historical Society to do a survey of modern homes that grace that particular town. Some of America’s best architects from the modernist period built buildings here, and the hope is that by preserving them digitally and disseminating the information broadly will help to stave off future destruction of these irreplaceable pieces of American architecture. Pictured above is the Bremer house by Eliot Noyes.

Today’s resource should be of interest to Art History students who are either enrolled in the FYS or in any of the courses that deal with East Asian Art. The site is MIT’s Visualizing Cultures, an interesting approach to learning that combines images and text to underline and expand on various themes that concern Asian art. Grouped into discrete “units” that focus on particular subjects, the site explores various areas of cultural history primarily from Japan and China and combines digitized prints, posters, photographs and more as supporting material for scholarly essays that are delivered in ways that are unique and take great advantage of the web as a delivery medium.

For today’s post here at the Visual Resources blog, we thought we’d point out an interesting site related to an upcoming class–since it’s the first day of classes and all. The site is called New York Architecture, and it’s a collection of digital images from many places and buildings in New York. This dovetails nicely with the upcoming Art History 398 course entitled Picturing New York, Professor R. Tripp Evans’ course which will “explore artists’ attempts to capture the essence of New York City, from its origins in the 17th century to the 9/11 period and beyond”. Pictured above is Eero Sarinen’s iconic TWA Building. Those interested may also want to note the November 10, 2009 to January 31, 2010 show devoted to the architect that is upcoming this fall at the Museum of the City of New York.

As we ourselves live in an area with its own threatened heritage sites–Easton’s historic Ames Shovel Shops were recently named as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Sites by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and are scheduled for demolition and alteration inside of a year’s time, one has to appreciate the efforts of CyArk in attempting to digitally capture in as much detail as possible the fragile historic buildings and places that form humanity’s common heritage.