A For Alphabet

A simple concept – a book, an alphabet and lots of images!

Inspiration

The pop artist Peter Blake, known for his Beatles album covers also produced many artworks based on the alphabet. This series (above) is a small sample of a series of silkscreens he produced. Using images and letters in a variety of fonts they have a very collaged feel to them, and when I discovered them a few years ago I collected images of every silkscreen in the series and kept them in a folder on my computer. I knew that one day I would revisit those images and produce my own work inspired by Blake’s. This year I did just that and in April I began to design a book filled with my own take on the alphabet and image concept.

The Blank Book

I bought this old note book at an antiques fair in 2014. Dating from the mid 1800’s, the previous owner had used part of it as a scrap book for mainly newspaper cuttings and pictures. A number of pages had been removed and there was a small pile of cuttings yet to be glued in.

I had tried to find a suitable project to use this book for a few times, but nothing seemed right until I found myself looking at Peter Blake’s alphabet series again. I decided that I could design my own version of an alphabet series and fill the book with it. My mind made up, I started the design process.

Designing

I was mindful not to copy Peter Blake’s style, just to take inspiration, so instead of making the designs look ‘blocky’ I wanted to use a looser layout to include images and letters of differing sizes.

I was very much led by what I could find to use in my layouts. I scoured my vast collection of images and books for images that began with a certain letter. It was no good thinking ‘oh I know, I’ll look for a Gazelle, for the letter G’, I just had to go with what I found.

As for the letters, they were cut from various old books, magazines and newspapers that I keep especially for chopping up. I was lucky enough to have a number of old children’s books in my collection that had pretty, illuminated letters, like these pictured above.

My idea was to combine random images with lots of cut out letters, some pages would have backgrounds (especially if an existing newspaper cutting needed covering), and some would not.

For impact I decided to allow two facing pages for each letter, this would mean fifty two sides in the book to cover. In the end I cut that down slightly by just using one page each for the last three letters ‘X. Y and Z’. I would be limited to what images I could find for these letters and it seemed the sensible thing to do.

To design the book I started with the letter ‘A’ and worked my way methodically through the alphabet. After setting out a draft design (as above), I photographed it for future reference and then put all the pieces in a plastic file pocket. By the time I reached ‘Z’ I had a file folder bursting with designs.

 

Designing the Front Cover

The immediate problem facing me with the front cover was that it wasn’t completely flat. Being such an old book, the cover had warped over time and now had a permanent convex curve to it. This posed limitations as to what I could put on the front. Anything with a large surface area stuck to it would crease. So the solution would have to be found in using lots of smaller pieces instead. So in the end it was quite an obvious decision to use more cut out letters.

I decided early on that for a more professional finish I would have to use letters cut from one source which would have the same density of print and quality of paper. I also favoured the more ‘old fashioned’ style of fonts, so I turned to my copy of an old Lady’s Pictorial publication from 1891 (below).

The Lady’s Pictorial was full of fonts, large and small and of varying styles, but would offer the consistency I was wanting. So I cut out lots of individual letters and put them in piles according to letter. I then drew out the size of the front cover on a sheet of paper and started a mosaic of all the letters.

Constructing the mosaic was very time consuming, so to keep the letters in place while I wasn’t working on it, I attached tiny blobs of Blu Tack to the back of each letter and used tweezers to place them on the design. I kept a small empty space around each letter and built up the design using a variety of sizes until I had filled the sheet.

For the title of the book I wanted to use a brass library drawer label holder as a frame, so I removed a section of the letters as these would not be seen.

I set out my title letters on old black paper and placed it behind the brass holder. I felt it just needed some embellishments to finish it off.

I chose a silk hat flower and three black feathers to finish off the design and photographed it for future reference. I kept the background letters stuck to the sheet of paper until it was time to transfer them to the front cover of the book.

Making the Book

With the book designs completed it was time to make up the book itself. There was actually very little preparation required as far as the empty book was concerned. As I mentioned earlier a number of pages had already been removed by the previous owner, however, there were still more pages than I needed, so I took my ruler, rotary cutter and mat, and cut out all the surplus pages, at intervals through the book, leaving a short stub behind. It is important to leave these short stubs in place as it prevents the book from falling apart, it also has the added function of making room to take up the bulk of adding the images and so preventing the book from splaying open too much. The surplus paper cut from the book was set aside and used for other purposes.

Leaving the front cover for later, I literally started with the first inside cover and worked my way through to the back inside cover. At about halfway through I decided to stick all the letters on the front cover in case the book became splayed by the end, and I didn’t want to work on a slope! So I spent about three afternoons transferring all the letters from the design sheet to the book cover. I then wrapped it in cling film to prevent it from becoming dirty while I completed the inside.

All the letter tiles I used were edged with black ink to allow them to stand out. I also used metal letters and letter tiles from a vintage game throughout the book.

Once the inside was finished I added the finishing touches to the cover and the book was complete.

What follows is every page of the book with a list of all the images used.

 

A For Alphabet, The Book

Front Cover: Assorted letters, brass holder, silk flower, feathers.

Inside Front Cover: Illuminated letter ‘A’ on script alphabet background.

 

Intro Page: Random letters and stamping.

 

A: Angels, African daisy, Autograph book page, Ace of spades playing card, Apple metal charm, stamps from Aden, Australia and Argentina, Arrow, Admission ticket, Art notes banner.

 

B: Balloon, Blue Butterflies, Beetle, Bluebell cigarette card, Buttons, Blackbirds, Bee, Boot, Bus ticket, stamps from Belgium and Brazil.

 

C: Chrysanthemum, Clowns, Children, Corset, Chlorodyne label, Car, Cat, Cup and saucer, Crown, Circus, Canary, Coupon, stamps from Ceylon, China and Canada.

 

D: Diary pages, Dance card, Dancing girls, Diamonds playing card, 4 1/2 D price, Dog, Drum, Daisy, Dragonflies, Deer, Ducks, Daffodils, Drone bee, stamps from Denmark.

 

E: Emerald green paper, Envelope, Eggs, Eye, Euphorbia, Elephant, Esterbrook’s advert, Earwig, Execution notice, Eiffel tower, Eagle, stamps from Egypt.

 

F: Fritillaria Flowers and butterfly, Flea circus advert, Finland Flag, Fish, Face, Fork, Flower Fairy,  Fan, Fingers (pointing), Fly, French script paper, stamps from France.

 

G: Giraffe, Green paper, Gun, Girl, Goldilocks, Ghost moth, Garden Warbler, Garden dictionary book page, Garden card, Grapes, Glove, Mr Green the Golfer, Globe flower, stamps from Guadeloupe and Guiana.

 

H: Hosta, Hyacinth, Hydrangea, Hand, Hopgood advert, Hunting, Hearts playing card, House, Hare, Horse shoes, Hat, stamps from Honduras and Hong Kong.

 

I: Indigo paper, Ireland map, Iris, Ice skating, Ironing board, ICI logo, ‘I’ lexicon card, Injury, Imp, Indian girl, Italian girl, marking Ink, Imp advert, Inch, stamps from Iceland and India.

 

J: Jewels, Jigsaw, Jaguar car, Jug, June bug, June diary page, Jaffajuice, Jam Jar, Jecomalt, Jack playing card, Jacob’s logo, Jellies and creams recipes, Jay, Japonica, Japanese text, Johnson & Johnson logo, stamps from Jamaica and Japan.

 

K: Kodak film wallet, King, Knight, Kangaroo, Kitten, Kingcup, Knot, Knitting pattern, Kestrel, Kite, Knitting books advert, Keys, Kleenoff advert, Knitting wool and needles, stamp from Korea.

 

L: Letter, Lady, Leaves, Linnet, Lake’s advert, Liver pills advert, Lace, Lion Logo, Lily, Label, stamps from Liberia.

 

M: Map, Mushroom, Moose, Medal, Meadow crane’s-bill, Magpie, Musician, Money, Mouse, Moth, Mermaid, Music, Moon, Mellin’s food advert, stamps from Mozambique and Mexico.

 

N: Note paper, Nasturtium, Net, Nightingale, New year card, Nails, Negative, Nest, Numbers, stamps from New Zealand, Norway and Nigeria.

 

O: Optician’s book page, Orchid, Onions, Orange tip butterfly, Owl, Original dramas advert, October diary page,  Once upon a time story page, Orange, Otter, Octopus, Ouija board, Oyster, OK sauce logo,.

 

P: Post card, Pansy, Painted lady butterfly, Policeman, Poison labels, Price tickets, Pointing fingers, Pears, Pied wagtail, Playing cards, Palmistry, Penguin, Photo of Ploughing, Photo corners, stamps from Puerto Rico, Palestine and Poland.

 

Q: Quilted fabric, Queen of Spain butterfly, Quince, Quiltec taffeta plant, Quill, Queen playing card, Quartz, Quetzal birds, Queen, Quail, Queen conch, Queue, stamp from Queensland.

 

R: Raffle tickets, Red admiral, Rose, Romanian girl, Roller skate, Rugby ball charm, Ravens, Robin, Redfern advert, Rabbit, Ring, Radish, stamps from Romania and Rhodesia.

 

S: Ship, Shells, Swallow, Stars made from Stamps, Sea holly, Sea Shells music Sheet, Scissors, Sunflower, Sailor, Soldier, Swans, Shoe, Strawberry, Stamps from South Africa.

 

T:  world Time book page, Tulip, Torch, Train, Ticket, Teacup, Tags, Trump cards, Trees book page, Thrush, Tomatoes, Telescope, Tree, Teapot, Tambourine, stamps from Trinidad & Tobago and Turkey.

 

U: ‘U’ dictionary page, Umbrella, Utensil, Uniform, Urchin, Uranium, Union Jack, Ukelele, Underwing moth, Ugly, Underclothing advert, Urn, United States, stamps from United States.

 

V: Volcano information sheet, Viola, Vacuum flask, Violin, Valliant, Vase, Van, Vegetables, Vole, Venus fly trap, Vacuum cleaner, Valise, Valentine motif, Vinolia soap logo, stamps from the Virgin islands.

 

W: Waltz dance instructions, Wrigley’s gum, Wellingtons, Wagtail, Wood anenome, Wheelbarrow, Weetabix advert, Weddings column, Woman, Windmill, Warrior, Watch, Wasp, Window, Wish bone, White butterfly, stamp from Wallis & Futuna.

 

X: Xmas, X-ray, Xylophone.

 

Y: ‘Y’ dictionary page, Yellow horned poppy, Yellow hammer, Yawn, Yacht, Yellow brimstone, stamp from Yugoslavia.

 

Z: Zephyr information, Zulu, Zinnia, Zox advert, stamp from Zanzibar.

 

Inside back cover: Illuminated letter ‘Z’ on script background.

 

Alison Vainlo 2018