NC State student designer Kayce Lomas experiments with typefaces in a way that sure tickles our fancy. This particular abecedary comprises 26 letters made up of textures corresponding to each one: B for barnacles, C for clouds, H for hive, and so forth. After the jump, peep the letters in sentence form.

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See, graphic designers aren’t just a bunch of font-minded prigs. They’re musical, too! Designers Mark Searcy, Jason Kinney, Forrest Martin, and Tristan Bynum star in this video send up to “Pokerface,” and take it from us, the beards and round glasses only enhance the slinky dance moves that put Lady Gaga to shame. Another fun fact: Neutra is actually pronounced “NOY-tra.” The more you know. 

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Rarely does graphic design inspire such heated discussion as in the case of the almighty logo (with the recent exception of Arnell’s Tropicana packaging, which we’ll be glad to never, ever revisit). Corporate versions tend to inspire particular ire, but are occasionally, thoughtfully, worth a second glance. After the jump, we have ten logos from big box retailers on down, plus secrets — lots of secrets! — that these companies may or may not want you to decode.

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We’re getting a kick out of graphic designer Cam Wilde’s latest endeavor, the “Periodic Table of Typefaces: Popular, Influential, & Notorious.” Posted in an online portfolio hosted by our friends at Behance, Wilde’s work neatly arranges 100 fonts by fame  and class, serving as both a quick lesson in the art form and an assessment of its impact. We particularly appreciate Wilde’s inclusion of each typeface’s year of creation,  which stretch all the way back to the printing press’ invention circa 1450.

For a few thoughts on the wild world of fonts, we turned to our resident designer, Jonathan Rahmani, who confessed to a sans-serif love affair via IM.

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Today at Flavorpill, when we were supposed to be busy working… we swooned over Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel’s impending indie rock nuptials; we secretly watched the first episode of the Diablo Cody/Toni Collette/Steven Spielberg Showtime series The United States of Tara by clicking here (password “tara”); we mourned the loss of famed sculptor Robert Graham; we celebrated some of the best fonts of ’08 — our beloved Rosewood didn’t make the cut; we visited Defamer’s 2008 Video Hall of Shame and walked away with even more respect for Human Wrecking Balls; we felt bad for Ben Lyons; we flipped out over the latest Lost promo; we were surprised (and a little embarassed) to find the New Yorker chatting about The Joy of Sex (complete with slideshow); we couldn’t believe anyone would pay $64K for a luxe turntable in our current economy; and finally, we braced ourselves for the impending onslaught of Transformers 2 mania. Let the games begin.

As we mentioned before, we’re big fans of the Rosewood font family around Flavorpill. Not so high on our list: Comic Sans. And we’re fairly sure that we’re not alone.

That’s why we’re launching an Iron Chef-inspired design competition for all of you bored typographers — or anyone who is willing to get their hands dirty in Adobe. Make it look pretty. Make it more interesting. Make it not hurt our eyes.

What’s the dangling carrot for your efforts, you ask? As a prize our contest sponsor, TASCHEN Books, will offer up three books from their domus series — domus vol. 1 – 3, valued at $210.

For over seventy-five years, domus has been hailed as the world’s most influential architecture and design journal. Founded in 1928 by the great Milanese architect Gio Ponti, the magazine’s central agenda has always remained that of creating a privileged insight toward identifying the style of a particular age, from Art Deco, Modern Movement, Functionalism and Postwar to Pop, Post-Modernism and Late Modern. Beautifully designed and comprehensively documented, page after page domus presents some of the most exciting design and architecture projects from around the world.

To enter, come up with your own version of Comic Sans and use it to write the phrase “Flavorwire.” Send a hi-res version to tips [at] flavorwire [dot] com. We’ll post a few of the best entries we receive each day, and use your feedback to help pick our winner.

You have one week to submit. The winner will be announced here on December 1st.

Good luck!