| Toyphabet is an illustrated alphabet, where objects are transformed into letters and letters into toys. When the series of prints titled "Dark Peculiar Toys - the Mechanics of Joy" was finished and editioned, a toy related "typeface" made perfect sense not only because of the abundance of materials in my disposal (I collected and photographed hundres of vintage toy parts), but because I was also interested in exploring the combination of these otherwise unrelated shapes while braiding them into something as structured and functional as type. The letters don't represent an existing toy molded into a letter form but the welding of fragments, connected to each other only by their common theme and the aesthetics that characterize my work in general. Since typography is an addiction of mine and fusion a second nature to me, illustrated type became a natural extension of my work. The challenge of preserving the integrity of the type forms made the process of mixing and matching a complicated one. The result was characters with unexpected symbolic attributes, true to the original point of the series - that children are formulated way too early to the troubles ailing their parents. |