Evolution of Type

I was wasting time on Pinterest one day when I stumbled upon artist Andreas Scheiger. What I had found was the letter G, presented like an anatomy study with pieces disconnected and the bone showing through.

It grabbed my attention and I decided to look into the artist further. What I found was his Behance portfolio, filled with all different variations of this project he has titled "The Evolution of Type". Inspired by Frederic W. Goudy's "The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering" from 1918, Scheiger began by surgically opening the letters S, Z, A, and W.

He describes letters as organisms and typefaces as the species and plays with the idea of them as living creatures with anatomy just like humans and other animals.

He dissected a bunch of different letters, but the project continued to grow and expanded to include letters cast in amber, "nature´s most spectacular way to preserve its ancient creatures for millions of years."

He even presented letters as fossils.

And the different stages of growth a letterform goes through.

Overall, I think this is such a fun and interesting idea and he has done it so well. The concept alone is so different than anything I have seen, and he presents it in such a playful way by pretending he is discovering and documenting a new species. The project even includes illustrated anatomical studies of the letters.

I can't wait to see what else he comes up with! http://www.behance.net/andreasscheiger -his portfolio http://grafischeslabor.blogspot.com -his blog, where he shows how he did everything!