In April of 2012 the A to Z Project was created by Free Arts NYC and Red Peak Branding to rally the creative community around the belief that art education is transformational and should be available to everyone. They asked 45 premier artists, illustrators, typographers and designers to lend their talents to create a letter, number or symbol. Last night they debued an original alphabet created through that collaboration.
New York City-based artists — including one of our founding editors Michael Bierut, fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, typographer Tony DiSpigna, street artist Eric Haze, architect Michael Arad, illustrator Izak Zenou and many more — created the original typeface comprised of 45 letters, numbers and symbols. From this typeface, Red Peak Branding created the new Free Arts NYC logo and brand identity.
Can you guess who made each letterform? (A full list is under the alphabet.)
A Tony Di Spigna
B Rafael Esquer
C Alan Dye
D Diane Von Furstenberg
E Stephen Doyle
F Joe Mimran
G James Victore
H Hugo Guinness
I Carin Goldberg
J Jennifer Meyer
K Michael De Feo
L Erin Fetherston
M Julia Hoffmann
N Matteo Bologna
O James Nares
P Martin Finio & Taryn Christoff
Q Todd Diciurcio
R Bob Gill
S Eric Haze
T Alex Olmsted For A.A. Antonio Azzuolo
U Ivan Chermayeff
V Bob Barrie
W Brian Collins
X Michael Bierut
Y George Lois
Z Izak Zenou
1 Michael Arad
2 Jessica Hische
3 Misha Nonoo
4 Timothy Goodman
5 Kingbee
6 Catherine Malandrino
7 Rachel Roy
8 Michael Perry
9 Brian Messana And Toby O’rorke
0 Fabien Baron
! Warby Parker
& Lawrence Weiner
+ Trey Laird
@ Cnnctd+
$ Sam Sohaili
% Gage Hamilton
? Cynthia Rowley
’ Harper’s Bazaar
# Steven Rojas