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The alphabet only has 26 forms, yet each shape can be interpreted in so many ways. Here are several examples of the letter A in serif and san-serif faces.

They all vary in x-height, weight, contrast of line and aperture size. Some possess a delicate sense, while others are heavy and solid. But still with all these variations, we can recognize the letterform. The Latin alphabet was developed by the Romans, but typographers today still find new ways to represent it.

Alphabet, a show of hand-drawn type curated by Post Typography and Artscape is up on display at Current Gallery. This collection of work was generated from a call to artists back in 2005. Fifty-one artists and designers from well-known typographers such as Ed Fella and Ken Barber to young, rising artists like Sweden’s Hjärta Smärta and Andrew Jeffrey Wright of Philadelphia’s Space 1026 were selected to design their own version of the alphabet. Since then, the work traveled nationally and has finally returned to Baltimore.

These conceptual alphabets challenge the letterform to the extreme. They range in being nearly illegible, illustrative, photographic, referencing the past, futuristic, architectural, serious and just fun. The show has been extended, but not for much longer, so if you are in the area, do stop in and see it in person.











Image credits: 1. The letter A from Clearface, Old Style,
Meridien, Baskerville, Joanna, Caslon, Cushing, Gazette, Maximus,
Americana, Ehrhardt, Impressum, Bookman, Helvetica, Highlander, Ocean
Sans, Letter Gothic, Antique Olive, Kabel, Gothic Thirteen, Myriad,
Avenir, Avant Garde, Eurostile, Franklin Gothic, Grotesque.

2. Image featuring letter A from many of the exhibit's alphapbets.

3. Michael Stout Imageability 2002.

4. Sibylle Hagman Letter P from Odile Initial Caps 2005.

5. Luke Ramsey and A. Purdy Hyper Type 2005.

6. Ed Fella A Commercial Art Alphabet: Not a Font 2005

7. Elaine Lustig Cohen Euclid 2005.