Alphabettes Soup London book launch

On the 10th of November, we will be in Artwords bookshop to celebrate the publication of Alphabettes Soup (big shoutout to Amy Papaelias (editor), Nina Paim (coordinator), Caren Litherland (copy editing), Tereza Bettinardi (book design), Bikini Books (publishers) and everyone else who made the book possible. The evening will start with an introduction by Teal Trigger, who also wrote the introduction to the book, then a talk by Tereza Bettinardi who will explain how it is possible to make a book with 120 typefaces and make it look great, and then an informal, friendly, and chill panel with Alessia Mazzarella, Catherine Dixon, Elena Veguillas, Eleni Beveratou, Naïma Ben Ayed, Sahar Afshar and Sophia Tai, moderated by Anoushka Khandwala ✌️

See you at what promises to be a great evening of chats around feminist approaches to type!! ✨

Artwords Bookshop
2–4 Clarence RD,
London E5 8HB

Tuesday, 10 November 26
6.30 – 8.30 pm

About the book
Alphabettes Soup: Feminist Approaches to Type
384 pages
100+ contributors
55 original articles, essays, and interviews
120+ typefaces by women and non-binary people

Alphabettes Soup: Feminist Approaches to Typefeatures over 55 articles, essays, and interviews exploring intersections between culture, language, business practices, technology, and type. It also includes interviews with Alphabettes members, visual histories, and reflections on past and ongoing initiatives. More than an anthology, the book is conceived as a type specimen, showcasing over 120 typefaces designed by women and non-binary individuals. Aimed at challenging dominant narratives in type history and contemporary practice, the book ultimately seeks to inspire future generations to create their own decentralized design communities.

Order a copy:
https://bikini-books.com/products/alphabettes-soup

Read more about the book:
https://www.alphabettes.org/happy-10th-birthday-alphabettes/

La familia Didactica

I’ve also written about the type family Didactica in English. Follow any of the links below if you want to read about it:

Y ahora, ¿qué voy a diseñar?

Voy a contarles la historia de un diseño que siempre quise hacer, que involucra un universo gráfico maravilloso y que aborda una temática muy interesante: la escritura a mano. Se trata de una tipografía para las infancias, destinada a material lúdico, didáctico y educativo. 

Comencé por preguntarme cómo son las letras en las distintas etapas del aprendizaje de la lectoescritura, desde jardín de infantes hasta el tercer año de la escuela primaria. Y cómo deberían ser: seguramente fáciles de reconocer, de leer y de escribir también.

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Behind the Tangent Superfamily: A Roadmap Full of Detours

How we collaborated on an on-going generative type system.

Deb: So, we want to write this article for Alphabettes, right?

Saachi: Yeah, to talk about our process. How we actually built Tangent.

Deb: How did we even start? It feels like we got to it so fast. Like one day we had nothing, and the next we had… a superfamily?

Saachi: Okay, let’s back up. All the way to the beginning.

Pit Stop 1: (Crossed) Pathways

It began in Kelsey Elder’s class called Variable; with the assignment Kit-Car. The brief was simple:

In the spirit of Sister Corita Kent, observe the world around you, and find a source. Look to find form in things that are, too, made up of shapes or parts. Consider toys, patterns on family heirlooms, fundamental shapes of objects, optical illusions, and so on. Create components from this source of inspiration and use them to make a set of static glyphs.

Corita Kent’s line: “learn to see the world by looking at the world one piece at a time” was basically the north star for the whole thing. Start small, start with parts.

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