Alphabet in Motion: How Letters Get Their Shapes

With an interactive cover, 17 pop-ups and hands-on activities throughout, Alphabet in Motion is an immersive introduction unlike any other to the history of typography and letter shapes. Ever wonder how we ended up with so many different styles of letters? Open any text editor, email client or design app and you will immediately be bombarded with a buffet of typographic choices. Serif or sans serif? Display or text? Classical or contemporary? Formal or casual? Featuring 17 stunning interactive pop-ups, this ABC pop-up book explains—as well as demonstrates—the technologies and philosophies that have shaped letterforms through the ages. Readers will learn about '60s psychedelic type by projecting light through a phototypesetting pop-up; how screen technology shaped letterforms by turning on and off anti-aliasing; or the aesthetics of typographic modularity by reconfiguring the puzzle pieces of Josef Albers' Kombinations-Schrift. Hardcover, 144 pages.