The Making of The Alphabeast
The letters were started on a fall evening, when I was in Switzerland. I was listening to a short story my mother read me out loud during a visit, a few years ago. She’ s a marvelous writer and story teller and while I was doodling absent mindedly, the letter J appeared on my sheet of paper in the form of an antelope.
It looked a bit out of sorts , angry, almost as if made to appear in our world without his full agreement. As he looked at me, he seemed to notice my amusement. To me, he was quite cute, wildish, a bit eccentric and the first letter of my daughter ‘s name, Joti. Good enough. I was distracted by my discovery for a few seconds, the rhythm of the story continued and my attention was soon captured again. Making sure my pencil kept in motion, the N and the V soon followed . That evening, it became obvious that I should complete this family of letters.
Some of them tip toed on the page willingly while others kept themselves obstinately out of reach. It took much coaxing to gather them all, two years in fact. Once the alphabet was completed, it became apparent that the numbers and punctuation should be offered as well and a year later, they all had found willing representatives. I have conformed the animals to the boundaries of my Queen of Fonts : Garamond. It also does not correspond to the name of the animal it represents as I plan to offer them to the European market, whose languages spell words differently.
I hope you will find as much delight in discovering them as I have.