Calligrammes are phrases, poems or a word in which calligraphy, handwriting or typeface is arranged to create a visual image. The image has words written on it and it often expresses meaning or tells a story.
One example of a famous calligramme writer was Guillaume Apollinaire. As well as being famous for his creation of calligrammes, he was also an author of a book called Calligrammes (subtitled Poems of War and Piece 1913-1916). The book consisted of a collection of poems by Apollinaire and was first published in 1918. It is famous for how the arrangement of the words on the page helps to illustrate the meaning of each individual poem.
Apollinaire describes his work as the following to André Billy, a French writer:
The Calligrammes are an idealisation of free verse poetry and typographical precision in an era when typography is reaching a brilliant end to its career, at the dawn of the new means of reproduction that are the cinema and the phonograph.
See this link for the full text (in French).
Here’s some examples of calligrammes:
And here’s our example of a calligramme:
surrealismphotography 