Hasta La Ideas

The July, Sex Special, issue of Wallpaper* landed on our desks this week and we noticed some nice type projects featured so we thought we’d flag them up…

Wallpaper* commissioned Airside’s Malika Favre to rework her Alphabunnies typeface (which we posted about last year) into a new, sexy typeface specially for the issue. “I kept my favourite letter – the G – and explored different ways to design the rest,” says Favre. “I feel that the poses are more sophisticated but the spirit remains the same: sexy Amazons exploring the joys of foreplay.”

Visitors to the Wallpaper* website will also find the typeface brought to life in an animated sequence that plays out on the masthead, and fans of the illustrated letterforms will be delighted to hear that Airside are selling individual letter prints, each in a limited edition of 10, via the Airside Shop.

Also in the issue is a preview of work commissioned specially by Wallpaper* and Birmingham-based type-focused educational body, Type for a forthcoming exhibition called Typographical Tart Cards. The magazine and Type, in conjunction with St Bride Library, approached a selection of designers – some well known, some still students – and asked them to create their own version of the calling cards left in London phone boxes. An exhibition of all of the cards will show at the KK Outlet from 22 to 29 June in London. Full details at kkoutlet.com 

One of the designers approached to take part in the project, Mike Dempsey, took a different approach to the cards shown above, as he has been working with the Helen Bamber Foundation for the last three years, helping to create greater awareness of the plight of trafficked women in the sex industry. In the letter he wrote to Wallpaper* accompanying his submission he wrote “what seems to be a light-hearted and even frivolous brief on the surface is actually a horrid world of fear, rape and violence. It is a topic that I can’t approach lightly.” Below is his submission. Wallpaper* posted this and the accompanying letter on their site. 

To view more of these projects and find out more about the Wallpaper* sex issue, visit wallpaper.com