Letters, we are using them every day to form words, phrases and interesting stories. But they also can wear different “clothes”, depending on what we are trying to communicate with them. Designers call these clothes “fonts”. That’s a basic concept that even young children can grasp and appreciate.
This simple foundation allows children to jumpstart their own creative ideas. It’s a book you can enjoy reading together over and over.
The Challenge
Typeface Designer Jeremy Dooley wanted to produce a small illustrated book that will give children an appreciation for the craft and design of letters. The captivating illustrations are bright and colorful, and the use of different letter forms makes for a fascinating read to delight ages young and young at heart. Each letter is presented with a short verse and makes a wonderful character in the whole story. My challenge was to come up with the illustrations for some of the letters in the book. These illustrations should describe of the characters and the rhymes the letters have to fit with.
The Process
Following the creative input that came from Jeremy, I developed the concepts for each of the letters illustration. Everything started as rough sketches. Inspiration came form different places, including art trends and styles like “art deco movement” or even ethnic patterns and shapes.
The Results
The book that started as a Kickstarter project was a success.
The Clothes Letters Wear is a picture book that teaches tots about serif fonts, sans serif fonts, and other type nuances through illustrations of letters playing dress up. In the book, a wedge serif version of the letter A isn’t some esoteric set of angles—it’s an adorable character wearing shoes. “I want children to understand that letterforms represent creative possibilities for them,” Dooley says. “How we write letters has shaped and is shaped by technology.”
It is available in printed board book edition from Amazon for $10 or Kindle edition for about $4.