typography

[toe-tapping review] Animal Albums from A to Z by Cece Bell

~ jama ~ 21 Comments

#64 in an ongoing series of posts celebrating the alphabet.

As a teen I used to love browsing the wooden bins at our local record store. Which LP should I take home for $3.25? Decisions, decisions. It was always a conundrum when parting with precious allowance money.

Of course I had been trained early on by my music-loving dad to treasure the vinyl discs that lived in all kinds of interesting cardboard sleeves (hello, Mantovani, Les Paul, Mario Lanza). As I began building my own record collection, I also grew quite enamored of album cover art — its own genre of inventive graphic design showcasing photos, illustrations, and typography — all on a neat 12″ x 12″ square.

Now that I think about it, some of my fave recording artists have animal names: Beatles, Monkees, Byrds, Steppenwolf, Buffalo Springfield, Iron Butterfly (and later, Eagles). So you can imagine how ecstatic I was to see Cece Bell’s, Animal Albums from A to Z (Walker Books, 2024) — a unique, wildly imaginative, uber creative tour-de-force that easily ranks in my top three favorite alphabet books of all time.

Letters. music. art. song lyrics. quirky. handmade. heartmade. humor. nostalgia. food (soup and pie!). Cece knows me. She’s checked all the boxes. Mind totally blown.

She opens her 64-page, all-ages ABC extravaganza with a tongue-in-cheek Introduction extolling the varied talents of imaginary animal musicians, enthusiastic to share 26 albums from her personal collection. She notes that they date from the 40’s to the 80’s, “the heyday of recorded animal music,” such records being difficult to find today.

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(the buzz about) A is for Bee by Ellen Heck

~ jama ~ 8 Comments

#62 in an ongoing series of posts celebrating the alphabet.

Just when you think you know the alphabet, along comes a fun and inventive animal abecedarian that shows you what you’ve been missing. 

Set aside the predictable ‘A is for Alligator’ and ‘Z is for Zebra’ books. In Ellen Heck’s A is for Bee: An Alphabet Book in Translation (Levine Querido, 2022), we learn what 26 familiar animals are called around the world.

We speak to each other in many languages, and in some of them . . . A is for Bee.

Although the word bee begins with ‘B’ in English, in some other languages, it actually begins with ‘A’: Aamoo (Ojibwe), Abelha (Portuguese).

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friday feast: Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings by Matthew Burgess and Kris Di Giacomo (+ chocolate mud puddles)

~ jama ~ 70 Comments

“No modern poet, to my knowledge, has such a clear, child-like perception as E.E. Cummings — a way of coming smack against things with unaffected delight and wonder . . . This candor results in breathtakingly clear vision.” (S.I. Hayakawa)

When I first heard a few months ago that a new picture book biography of E. E. Cummings was being published by Enchanted Lion Books, my heart literally skipped a beat. Cummings is, after all, my all-time favorite poet. Then when I learned the book was being illustrated by Kris Di Giacomo, who did Take Away the A (one of my favorite alphabet books), it was all I could do to contain my excitement until the book finally hit shelves earlier this month.

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

In Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings, debut picture book author, scholar, educator and poet Matthew Burgess recounts Cummings’s life from his magical childhood in Cambridge, through his days at Harvard, to when he finally settled in Greenwich Village, where he lived for nearly four decades.

Kids will enjoy seeing how Cummings loved playing with words from a very early age, received lots of encouragement along the way, and found the courage to remain true to himself, ultimately becoming one of the most innovative and inventive poets of the 20th century, a true champion of individuality whose lyrical experiments with grammar, syntax, and punctuation continue to baffle and delight.

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i’ll have another cup: rob draper’s beautiful hand lettering on everyday objects

~ jama ~ 18 Comments

#51 in an ongoing series of posts celebrating the alphabet.

Today, for your feasting and ogling pleasure, the brilliant work of UK-based designer, illustrator, hand lettering artist and typographer Rob Draper.

His specialties include creative typography and layout for print, branding and typography/lettering for apparel, large scale typography/murals, and art direction.

Love his unique “canvases” — pencils and erasers, for example.

His Coffee Time and Napkin Time series, part of his current obsession to draw and hand letter on discarded everyday objects, are especially cool.

 

 

 

 

 

Did you ever think a paper cup, coffee stirrer, napkin, paper towel or piece of toilet tissue could be so amazing?

Of course my absolute favorites are his use of actual food.

 

 

 

See more of Rob’s work at his website, Instagram, or tumblr.

 

Happy Tuesday!

♥ More alphabetica here.

 

 

alphabet iconCertified authentic alphabetica. Made by hand just for you with love, ink, and lotsa cups.

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Copyright © 2015 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.

linzie hunter: accidental pigs, uninspired messages and other totally cool delights

~ jama ~ 14 Comments

#50 in an ongoing series of posts celebrating the alphabet

nice

Right now I am loving the work of crazy-talented London-based illustrator and hand lettering artist Linzie Hunter.

Originally from Scotland, she graduated from Glasgow University and then studied illustration at the Chelsea College of Art and Design.

orangesweater

Linzie’s distinctive, exuberant doodles have graced everything from magazine and book covers, posters, cookie tins, children’s toys, stickers and stationery to oodles of promotional materials. Her impressive international client list includes The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Scholastic, HarperCollins, Roaring Brook Press, Sainsbury’s, Random House, Macmillan, American Girl, and Marks & Spencer.

Her hand drawn letters have irresistible “personalities” and her zany characters often prompt a double take. I also love her maps and ongoing poster series of Uninspiring Messages. And yes, she’s illustrated a children’s book: A Small Brown Dog With a Wet Pink Nose (written by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen).

Enjoy this mini-trip to Linzie Land! 🙂

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