all photos by spoon & tamago (taken with iphone 5)
The Dainippon Type Organization sounds bigger than it is. It’s actually just 2 guys — Hidechika and Tetsuya Tsukada — who intentionally picked a grand-sounding name. On a basic level, it’s a good example of the playful nature of the duo, who met in art school and have been playing with writing systems for the past 22 years.
By deconstructing, combining and re-configuring elements of the Japanese and English alphabet, the duo probe new possibilities and concepts in writing systems. And now the collective results of their escapades are on display at Ginza Graphic Gallery in Tokyo.
“U Crown Children” | The Japanese kanji character for “letter” (字) is composed of the character for ‘child’ (子) with a ‘U crown’ (宀) on top. Get it?
The title of the exhibition is ggg or, in Japanese, 字字字. Pronounced just like the letter ‘g,’ 字 means character or kana or letter of an alphabet. And as you enter the gallery space the first piece you’re met with are adorable large-format photos of triplets that create a partly-literal, partly-pictorial representation of the show’s name.
ggg at the Ginza Graphic Gallery is on view through November 28, 2015.
a large bench shaped as the 字 character sits in the middle of the 1st floor
“字 by 字” is a series of phrases that incorporate reassembled letters with elements of the character 字
In the basement level, another 字-shaped bench surrounded by various typographic posters
left: “Lego” is ab alphabet composed using just 8 pieces | right: “Union Jack” is the U.K. flag with elements isolated to create the 字 character
“Three Faces Phantom Jiji No.271” | the body patterns of a popular alien creature from the TV series “DADA No.271” is formed by 字
“No Future Without” | the designers imagine a world in which only characters pronounced as “ji” (g or じ or 字) exist
“No Future without じ G ジ”
“No Future without じ G ジ”
Details! Even the bathroom sign had been replaced with a typographic one
ggg at the Ginza Graphic Gallery is on display through November 28, 2015
