Kelli Anderson: Alphabet in Motion

Join us for a release event with Graphic designer, educator and author Kelli Anderson, discussing her new art book Alphabet in Motion. This event will be hosted in the Strand Book Store's 3rd floor Rare Book Room at 828 Broadway on 12th Street.

Can’t make the event? Purchase a signed copy of Alphabet in Motion here.

ACCESSIBILITY:

Strand Book Store is an ADA compliant venue. The event space is accessible via elevator.

ASL interpretation is available for this event by request only. Please reach out to our events team at events@strandbooks.com by Nov. 4 to request.

Please ask a Strand employee upon arrival for directions to accessible seating if preferred.

For further information on accessibility in this space, or to make a request, please contact events@strandbooks.com

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With an interactive cover, 17 pop-ups and hands-on activities throughout, Alphabet in Motion is an immersive introduction unlike any other to the history of typography and letter shapes

Ever wonder how we ended up with so many different styles of letters? Open any text editor, email client or design app and you will immediately be bombarded with a buffet of typographic choices. Serif or sans serif? Display or text? Classical or contemporary? Formal or casual?

Featuring 17 stunning interactive pop-ups, this ABC pop-up book explains—as well as demonstrates—the technologies and philosophies that have shaped letterforms through the ages. Readers will learn about '60s psychedelic type by projecting light through a phototypesetting pop-up; how screen technology shaped letterforms by turning on and off anti-aliasing; or the aesthetics of typographic modularity by reconfiguring the puzzle pieces of Josef Albers' Kombinations-Schrift.

Type history is often technical and always visual. It is therefore challenging to fully explain in text or in diagrams alone. The book's interactive features provide a sensory inroad for curious general readers to grasp how typography has transformed through history (and how lettering can convey a point of view or philosophical stance). A 128-page companion essay section includes an essay further contextualizing each pop-up. Alphabet in Motion puts the reader's hands, eyes and minds in touch with the meanings behind the typography that surrounds us in our homes, on our screens and on our streets. If you look carefully, you can see the history of the world—from the Bronze Age to the Information Age—in the microcosm of type.

Photo credit: Daniel Dunnam

Graphic designer, educator and author Kelli Anderson has been widely celebrated for her work in graphic design, pop up books and risograph animations. She is a two-time Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award nominee, was a fellow at both NYC's Center for Book Arts and San Francisco's Exploratorium, served as Adobe's inaugural creative resident, and was a 2025 Eames Institute honoree. Anderson's previous publications include This Book Is a Camera (MoMA, 2015)—which transforms into a working camera—and This Book Is a Planetarium (Chronicle, 2017), which has sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide in two languages. Her work has been praised by The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Today Show, Wired, and more… Her new book, Alphabet in Motion will be available in bookstores worldwide on November 18th.