Jeu de lettres or Playing with Letters

In an effort to get control of all these little bits of paper in my life, I came across this wonderful quote by Gerard Charriere, a Swiss-Trained Typographer and Book Artist.

If you choose a delicate typeface, don't put something with it that will overwhelm; it is a marriage. You can play with letters until they become part of the design. I like them to be very clear, with lots of space, each letter to make a statement. Sometimes I call my work 'Je de lettres" or playing with letters. I arrange them so that each one stands on its own, like in a bunch of flowers, yet never overcrowding. It is a balance. I see it when it works.

On the same piece of paper, I wrote "Pick a letter, set the timer, cut out letters from magazines, quickly arrange." I picked the letter "T," but started seeing some interesting "J's" so they got included too. The entire exercise took an hour. You can find it on the second to last page of one of my art journals. I am sure I will play with it some more because that is what I do.  It was a fun way to jump start my creativity today. What do you do to jump start your creativity?