Here’s a tedx video of Andrew Byrom, who makes awesome interdisciplinary typography:

http://tedxucla.org/2011/05/12/andrew-byrom-if-h-is-a-chair-mapping-new-forms-in-typography-through-experimentation-collaboration-and-a-shifting-view-point/ accessed January 31, 2012.

Notes while watching the video:
Face recognition
Color blind test
Typeface recognition — type made of drinking straws
seeing letters everywhere — in bandaids, searching out typographic forms, then digitizing them; finding something in 3d and bringing it back into flatness.
“if h is a chair, what do the other letters look like?”
His thinking process leads him to collaborations. He envisions physical form for his letters, such as metal furniture, neon, kites, rails, blinds…and seeks out the craftsmen/factories to make his visions come alive. Sometimes he has a 3d idea, such as flipping blinds, and then envisions the typographic form to go with it.

What’s neat here is the back and forth he has with the manufacturer — an old school relationship to make new form. Breaking into other disciplines and bending them to suit his needs — persisting until the neon guy is hooked and wants to make his complicated forms.