What we used to call “commoncase” typefaces fascinate me. Bradley Thompson had a plan to redesign the alphabet using a smaller set of letterforms.
The plan for simplifying and improving our alphabet, entitled “Alphabet 26,” was first presented in Westvaco Inspirations 180 in 1950. It recommended the use of only one symbol for each of the 26 letters.
Our conventional alphabet contains 19 letters having dissimilar upper and lower case symbols (such as ‘A’ and ‘a’) and 7 letters (c-o-s-v-w-x-z) having symbols that are identical.
It is misleading for a letter, or for any graphic symbol, to have two different designs. Confusion might set in when school children are taught to recognize words even before they have learned to recognize different symbols for the same letter.
Like many such innovative concepts, it seems logical and sensible on the surface, but it’s something that will probably never happen. It would be cool to see Alphabet 26 used in some near-future film, though.
September 17, 2008 at 8:36 am |
Didn’t SNL have a skit that shorted the alphabet? I seem to remember LMNO becoming one letter. And everything from P-Z was put together