This article forms part of the Decorative and Applied Arts Encyclopedia, a master reference hub providing a structured overview of design history, materials, movements, and practitioners.
Typography, whether purposely unnoticed or at its most beautiful, is an art, even if some of us pay little attention to it. The Madrid-based design studio CESS created a typeface inspired by modern art for the 36 Days of Type project, inviting graphic artists and designers to design one letter or number each day. The result is the adorably named Artphabet, a striking, primarily hand-designed project that also serves as a lesson in 20th- and 21st-century art.
The alphabet letters work well with the pop and modern artists featured. “A is for Andy Warhol” (a soup can dented enough for the apex of an A); “D is for Damien Hirst” (a shark in a vitrine swimming from one side of the D to the other, à la “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”); a gleaming “J for Jeff Koons” balloon animal. Not every letter is inspired by a specific artist; there’s a “Q” inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a “U” inspired by Henri Matisse, both of which are as gorgeous.
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