What time is it? It’s time for our annual tradition: the Alphabettes 24-Hour Hangout to celebrate International Women’s Day! ⏰ From March 8, 2025 at 12:00am ET / 05:00 UTC to 11:59pm ET / 04:59 UTC 3/9, stop by for conversations on type, design, lettering, the universe, etc. Some times may be more spontaneous and chatty, other hours might be filled with activities and presentations.
Note: We’ll be using Jitsi.
Continue reading
Next year, Alphabettes turns 10, and we’re celebrating with a pot-luck book! Alphabettes Soup: Ten Years of Feminist Approaches to Type will be served up — piping hot — in September 2025, published by Bikini Books, a feminist publisher based in Porto. Read all about it here: bikini-books.com/products/alphabettes-soup-2015-2025-ten-years-of-feminist-approaches-to-type
To date, we’ve raised about half of the total amount we need to bring this book to boil. We still have a long way to go, and this is where we’d love your help! All funds go to the printing and production, as well as offering honorariums to authors. You can also help us spread the word.
➤Are you a company, and would you like to sponsor this book? Reach out at sponsorships@bikini-books.com.
➤Are you an individual who would like to make a donation? 💚 DONATE VIA PAYPAL 💚
All sponsorships and donations will be acknowledged in the book. Every spoonful of your support helps! 🥄😘
Receive updates on the book’s progress, pre-sale announcements, and invite you to our launch events. Stay tuned for next steps! 🥣😘👌💚
Same Bold Stories? Type Design by Women and Queers in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Exhibition at the Klingspor Museum, Offenbach am Main, Germany
July 19—November 24, 2024
In July, I had the chance to attend the opening of Same Bold Stories?, an exhibition that explores the question: Where are women’s voices in type design that complement the existing history?
While conversations about women in type design are becoming more common, exhibitions on this topic are still pretty rare. That’s why it’s so important to acknowledge and appreciate this effort. The exhibition was developed in collaboration with the Klingspor Museum (Dr. Dorothee Ader, Valerij Ledenev, Tatjana Prenzel), design studio Turbo Type (Laura Brunner, Leonie Martin), and the feminist collective +FEM (Kristina Mukhacheva, Naomi Rado). The opening took place on July 19, and I was lucky to be there. The feedback has been very positive, with media describing it in fitting words like “Fat, brave, and cheeky!” (hr2-Kultur Review) and “Arial, Bold, Times New Roman – Queer and Feminine Font Design” (Deutschlandfunk Kultur Interview). The exhibition runs until November, with various events planned. You can check the details here.
Continue reading
We’re back for the Alphabettes Variety Show at the TypeLab at Typographics on Thursday, June 13, 2024, 12:45-1:20p EDT! This year some of us will be at 41 Cooper Square, but you’re also welcome to join from the comfort of wherever you are via the livestream or sign up for the TypeLab Zoom link to participate, ask questions, share soup recipes, etc.
Now in its 7th edition, but first back in Cooper Union since 2018, the Variety Show includes live interviews, interactive activities, and fun things. While we can’t guarantee more dance lessons or birthday cakes, we might have a few more surprise up our sleeves. Stay tuned to find out! ⭐️
2024 Variety Show graphic features Tiny Grotesk by Robin Mientjes.
Sandra García is a type designer based in Mexico City, half of TipasType (who recently released Sandhouse), co-author of Elementype, prolific user of reaction emoji, and now, podcast host to the brand new TypoDcastMx. She answered a few questions about this new endeavor in Español and English.
It’s that time of the year again: our annual 24 Hour Hangout on International Women’s Day. It’s a day when we collectively decide to ignore any little voices of reason or sense and instead hold a hangout with type nerds on the internet for 24 hours straight. Are you in or are you in?
This is a transnational call for solidarity with the Palestinian people and a call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. A ceasefire – not a pause, nor a truce – is not the only demand, but is the first demand. Starting (and expanding) from the 153 countries that have signed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; we say Ceasefire Now! If you wish to contribute from a place/in a language that is not yet covered, with your typeface, lettering or calligraphy, head here. To print and post/make placards with the poster head here. This post is updated every other week.
Continue readingNow that 2023 has come and gone, here is the follow-up to our July post, Mid-year Font Releases 2023. Since then, we’ve catalogued 42 additional releases during the year. In alphabettes-ical order:
ABOVE: Akuto Sans Serif by Bríguida Guerreiro / ALT Riviera by Giulia Boggio / Amboni by Anita Jürgeleit / Baleze Display by Daytona Mess / Bardamu by Anna Remm & Eugene Tantsurin / Brillante by Solenn Bordeau, Jolana Sýkorová & Jérémie Hornus
Continue readingThe last time Lisa Huang shared a Very Cool Thing on Alphabettes, she published her research on Noto Sans Nüshu script, and the community of women behind it. Two and a half years later, Lisa is back to answer some questions on her newest Very Cool Thing, Words of Type.
Tell us about your new project and Kickstarter campaign!
Words of Type is an encyclopedia of typography, with each term illustrated, described and explained into multiple languages. Each term is explained in concise and straight forward terms to be easily understood, and illustrated by multiple artists to bring visual variety and fun. To bring the various typographic cultures closer together, there will be not only terms from Latin typography, but also those of other writing systems. To give a (literally) better access to typographic knowledge, it’s going to be a website that gives free access to everyone, everywhere. And it will grow and evolve over time, with more languages and words.
Below is a collection of photos of Alphabettes—and a few other colleagues—over the years at various type conferences and other special events. Have other photos to share? Let us know and we can add them here.
