Playing to Type

LETTER PERFECT The Los Angeles-based artist Alison Berger uses traditional glass-blowing methods to create her delicate lighting fixtures, like her atmospheric, subtle, and meditative Word Pendant for Holly Hunt. 11″W × 12.5″H with 46″ stem. $10,620. Webster & Co., Boston Design Center, (617) 261-9660, webstercompany.com

B IS FOR BEAR Coral and Tusk’s embroidered linen cocktail napkins, available in letters from A to Z, are a perfect alternative to more-traditional monogrammed cloths. 6″ square. $72/set of four, $108/set of six. RISD Works, Providence, R.I., (401) 277-4949, coralandtusk.com

SHEER EXCITEMENT Sonia Rykiel, the French fashion designer who has been emblazoning messages on her knitwear pieces since the 1970s, takes her musings to fabrics for the home. Her Rue Des Quatre Vents cotton/polyester sheers for Lelièvre come in five luscious colorways. 118″W. $342/yd. Stark, Boston Design Center, (617) 357-5525, starkcarpet.com

ON SCRIPT John Ross, of Patch NYC, has created a series of white-ink calligraphic drawings that are funny, ironic, and charming. Each of the unique pieces has been set in an antique frame. Shown, I Will Not Give Up This Time. 9″× 12″. $350. Patch NYC, Boston, (617) 426-0592, patchnyc.co

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED This is not your grandmother’s needlepoint. Jonathan Adler’s handmade Love pillow takes classic Victorian style and gives it a contemporary, graphic twist. The pillow has a velvet back,hidden zipper, and feather insert. 16″ square. $165. Jonathan Adler, Boston, (617) 437-0018, jonathanadler.com; and Delicious Designs, Hingham, Mass., (781) 556-5269, deliciousdesignshome.com

DIRECTIONS INCLUDED Sack the unsightly plastic laundry tub and choose Izola’s Practice Conservation laundry bag. The heavy-duty cotton/polyester canvas bag is good-looking enough to do double duty as a gym tote or everyday duffle. 22″W × 25″L x 8″. $39. Spoiled Rotten, Ogunquit, Maine, (207) 641-8477, izola.com

OUTSIDE THE BOX Even creepy crawlers become charming when Dean Brown stencils them onto one-of-a-kind wood pieces. Here, a pair of termites adorns a vintage Weiss dovetailed box. 8¾″W × 6½″H × 4¾″D. $200. The Clawfoot Tub, Amherst, Mass., (413) 992-7229

WRITINGS ON THE WALL Artist Richard Baker, who divides his time between New York and Wellfleet, Massachusetts, paints "portraits" of some of his favorite paperback books and record album covers. His attraction to them varies from content to appearance, and usually includes both. Shown, The Life of Forms in Art, gouache on paper. 10½″W × 12″H. $1,775. Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, Mass., (508) 487-4424, universalfineobjects.com

FOUND IN TRANSLATION /// When Joseph Carini, creative director of Carini Lang, saw Australia-born, New York-based artist Timothy Paul Myers’s large-scale collages using early twentieth-century ephemera, he knew Myers’s sensibility would translate well to carpets. The results of their collaboration: rugs like this silk-and-wool work of art called Bloomfield. 6′ × 9′. $12,150. Steven King Carpets, Boston Design Center, (617) 426-3302, stevenkinginc.com

EASY AS ABC John Derian makes use of the imagery in his vast collection of antique and vintage prints for the handmade Red Alphabet plate. 6″ square. $70. Impeccable Nest, Bedford, N.H., (603) 264 4640, impeccable-nest.com

We’re not sure when our fascination with typography as a decorative device surfaced. Was it triggered by a renewed interest in good old-fashioned typewriters? (They’re all the rage these days among hipsters, and apparently Tom Hanks has a vast collection of them.) Were we yearning for the days of circle, circle, push, push Palmer-method penmanship? Or could it be the thank-you note we received a while back? All swoopy letters and lovely thoughts after a dinner party, handwritten in the blackest ink on the heaviest stationery.

Maybe the reality of this infatuation is much simpler—a responseto the fast and furious dissemination of information, a reaction to the 140-character world we increasingly find ourselves in.

In any case, here are a few examples of all the write stuff.