A2Z+: Alphabets and Signs

alphabets & signs Typography exists everywhere, even in the unlikely forms created by a dancer’s body in the Czech font Abeceda. With 100 new pages and a revamped introduction and texts by art writer Mel Gooding, A2Z+ expands and improves upon A2Z, the classic compendium of type.

Inside, curving lines of words make up the body of a rooster, eye-charts assert their avant-garde merit, and stamped figures appear on USSR political propaganda in bold primary colors.

Culled from classic modernist books, design handbooks, and signwriter manuals, this collection is the perfect inspiration for designers, history buffs, and casual readers, and it remains the ultimate source for inventive fonts not found anywhere else.

EDITED BY

Julian Rothenstein is a London-based editor and designer, as well as the founder and publisher of Redstone Press. His other books from Princeton Architectural Press include Psychobook and The Blind Photographer.

JULIAN ROTHENSTEIN

54000

U.S. $40.00 ISBN 978-1-61689-707-9

9 781616 897079

Princeton Architectural Press www.papress.com

EDITED BY

JULIAN ROTHENSTEIN

Folk calligraphy, Japan, early 19th century

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Folk calligraphy: character for prosperity, China, c.1880

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From a typefounders’ manual, USA, c.1900

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From a typefounders’ manual, USA, c.1950

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Illustration from Crazy Fairy Tales by Bohumil Sˇtˇepán, Czechoslovakia, 1965

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Typeface from The Signwriter’s Manual of Typefaces by Richard Pípal, Czechoslovakia, 1956

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From a typefounders’ catalogue, UK, mid-19th century

104

From a trade catalogue, UK, c.1895

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Alphabet designed by AndrĂŠ Vlaanderen, the Netherlands, 1928

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From The Next Call by H. N. Werkman, the Netherlands, c.1924. Courtesy Brian Webb collection

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Typeface, Russia, c.1905. Courtesy Pentagram

174

Title page of Zohna and Brides, designed by Ilya Zdanevich, USSR, c.1925. Courtesy Misha Anikst

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Magazine cover, Arts et MĂŠtiers Graphiques (No.32), France, 1932

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Cover and pages from Le TĂŠmoin, designed by Paul Iribe, France, 1930s. Courtesy David Batterham

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Statistical chart by W. E. B. Du Bois, Negro Business Men in the United States, USA, c.1900

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Statistical chart by W. E. B. Du Bois, City and Rural Population 1890, USA, c.1900

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Painted sign for a tavern, Russia, c.1910

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From The Sign Writer and Glass Embosser, UK, 1898. Courtesy Brian Webb collection

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Preliminary drawing for the typeface Futura, Paul Renner, Germany, 1925

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Publicity announcement in Gebrauchsgraphik, Germany, 1930

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Classroom poster, 47 Characters for Easy Learning (detail), Japan, 1864

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