Review by Booklist Review
Australian writer, designer, illustrator, and photographer Coote demonstrates the concept of creating art using the alphabet. Following an introduction detailing text styles and typography, Coote explores the presence of letterforms in architecture, animals, and human faces. For each section, she offers real-world examples (some photographic), provides design rules at three levels (beginner, advanced, and designer), and makes suggestions for getting started (the letter e can be used as an eye; B makes a great pair of glasses). She encourages young artists to observe objects they encounter to determine which letters hide within; her numerous examples include buildings, animals, and famous individuals from around the world. Color is used effectively throughout, often to set off black lettering. A few faces (Julia Gillard, former prime minister of Australia) will be unknown to U.S. readers, but many Americans are represented as well. A great source for project ideas; fans of Chip Kidd's Go: A Kidd's Guide to Graphic Design (2013) will welcome this title.--Weisman, Kay Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In an eye-catching collection of "letter art," Australian graphic designer Coote reveals how letters can be used not as the building blocks of language but of artwork. A section titled "Architext" features typographic recreations of famous buildings from around the world-swoopy capital Rs and Ds form the distinctive shells of the Sydney Opera House, for example, with rolling S waves below-while the second and third sections, "Alphabeasts" and "Letterheads," show how letters can be transformed into portraits of animals and people. Throughout, Coote encourages readers to try their own hand at making letter art, offering pointers, different skill levels and challenges, and information about typography itself. Readers will finish the book both awed and eager to embark on their own typographical experiments. Ages 7-up. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
This large-format, 120-page Australian import is an exhaustive exposition of a unique art form, letter art. In a two-page preface, Coote notes that the advent of the Apple Macintosh computer in the 1980s gave graphic designers access to a multitude of typefaces and the ability to freely manipulate letterforms to create a kind of alphabetical sculpture, or pictorial anagram. She defines her three rules for letter art by skill level. Beginners should use letters any way they choose; more-advanced practitioners should use only the letters found in the correct spelling of the name of their subject; and Designers should use only the correct spelling and only one font per letter. The book is divided into three sections: Architext, depicting architecture and famous monuments; Alphabeasts, showing a range of animals, complete with instructions and puzzles; and Letterheads, with instructions on how to portray facial features using letters along with skillful depictions of historical characters, artists, and showbiz personalities. (Frida Kahlos face lends itself well to this type of portrayal.) The visual puzzles are amusing and intriguing, but the text is written in a juvenile, "how to do it" mode, implying a level of practical potential that will ultimately disappoint many kids who would like to create these types of images, as most are unlikely to have the skills or technical resources required. As an album of the art form, impressive; as instruction in it, less so. (Nonfiction. 8-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
