As a communication designer Kelli Anderson started her career in information design. “Data visualization is about bringing facts from the abstract and numerical realm into the realm of perception so you can see them,” she says in a video on Kickstarter. “And I thought, why stop there? What if you could also feel and experience those facts?”
This month, Anderson is launching a remarkable project five years in the making called Alphabet in motion: How letters get their shapean ABC pop-up book about typography. She spent thousands of hours researching design archives and meticulously designing kinetic and three-dimensional type to show how type styles have evolved over the centuries.
“If you look closely at the letters, you will see a secret history of the world – from the Bronze Age to the Information Age,” says Anderson. “But because many of these methods, tools and machines are now outdated, this history is challenging to follow. Alphabet in motion uses tactile, interactive features to help clarify how letters have transformed alongside technological upheavals and changing aesthetic moods.
The project consists of two joined, detachable books. The pop-up section contains an interactive, seven-segment display cover that changes from A to Z, 17 movable paper elements and practical activities. The accompanying 128-page section includes an essay that delves into the history and concept of each pop-up, plus 300 full-color images from the history of type design.
Anderson’s book is already a crowdfunding hit; the project has been successfully funded, but there are still four weeks to go order your copy. Follow her work Instagramand you might also enjoy another project of hers, This book is a camera.
