type tuesday: Tien-Min Liao

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Tien-Min Liao has taken a popular idea (forming letters with configurations of a body or body parts) and executed it so flawlessly and completely that ownership is rightfully hers.

"In this experiment, I drew shapes with ink on one or both of my hands, manipulating my gestures into the corresponding shape to signify an upper-case letter. Then, using the same shape on my hands, I manipulated mygesture or changed the perspective through which the shape is viewed in order to transform the upper-case letter to a lower-case of the same letter. Removing or redrawing the darkened shape on my hands is not allowed in the experiment. The only way to make the model transform from an upper-case to a lower-case (orvice versa) is changing the gestures or the perspectives."

Another pretty project is a photographic portrait of found lettershapes in Grand Central Station:

And last, but not least, is a beautiful animation ode to Baskerville (the italic is always a favourite typeface of mine—you can't find a more beautiful ampersand).

type tuesday: Museum of Childhood

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When I return to London (for now that I've been once, I'll have to go back again and again) with Finley and Glen, we'll go to the V & A Museum of Childhood together. This free museum had excellent displays of traditional and historical childhood toys, but also areas for play and a nice place to have a lunch as a family.

This spelling cabinet from 1790 caught my eye. What an amazing specimen!

If it has letters on it, I'm automatically drawn to it.

This 1890s Victorian party programme outlined the activities for a wealthy child's party.

Some more modern-day items. (It's funny to see the Fisher Price village as "museum quality" — the one I played with some 30+ years ago is now Finley's.)

The boy mannequins look unhappy and worried about getting their clothes dirty. If anyone knows where you can get these Left and Right alphabet shoes today, I think Finley and I would both be happy.

type tuesday: pod and iPad by Kapitza

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This may not look like a font, but Kapitza's vector art is set up as a font file so that you can customize to your heart's content. Rather than providing predetermined arrangements like typical clip art, the font format allows for more creativity.

Click to read a review on Eye's blog.The Kapitza sisters have a new book featuring their organic patterns (and a pattern-generating iPad app as well.) You can read our article about Kapitza in issue #9.