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Alphabet in Motion: How Letters Get Their Shape
Hardcover
General DesignTypography & Calligraphy
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ISBN13: 9780997175912
Publisher: Katherine Small Gallery
Published: Nov 18 2025
Pages: 144
Weight: 4.95
Height: 2.60 Width: 9.90 Depth: 12.20
Language: English
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?
Type history is often technical and always visual. It is therefore challenging to fully explain in text or in diagrams alone. The book's interactive features provide a sensory inroad for curious general readers to grasp how typography has transformed through history (and how lettering can convey a point of view or philosophical stance). A 128-page companion essay section includes an essay further contextualizing each pop-up. Alphabet in Motion puts the reader's hands, eyes and minds in touch with the meanings behind the typography that surrounds us in our homes, on our screens and on our streets. If you look carefully, you can see the history of the world--from the Bronze Age to the Information Age--in the microcosm of type.
Kelli Anderson is a graphic designer, paper engineer, educator and author who uses design magic to connect people with the hidden talents of everyday things. Her previous publications include This Book Is a Camera (MoMA, 2015)--which transforms into a working camera--and This Book Is a Planetarium (Chronicle, 2017)--which houses paper devices (including a planetarium) and has sold more than 100,000 copies.
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