Federico Babina’s illustrated alphabet of architects
A new publication out this month documents Federico Babina’s fun illustrated alphabet of famous architects, from Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier and Norman Foster to Walter Gropius and Zaha Hadid.
Italian architect and graphic designer Federico Babina has fashioned an alphabet in which each letter represents the heavyweights of the architecture world. His love of illustration dates back to his childhood when he read comic books.
Later, while studying architecture, he came to realise the strong relationship between graphic design and architecture. Combining his two passions, he explains: 'Sometimes I am an architect with a passion for illustration and at other times I'm an illustrator in love with architecture'.
Each letter of his Archibet has been created using iconic, instantly recognisable, elements of these architects' buildings, so Eames' letter E is made up of primary-coloured building blocks, while Jean Nouvel's combines his Institute du Monde Arabe in Paris with the Torre Agbar in Barcelona to create a J. Renzo Piano's letter has a hint of the Pompidou about it and Foster's extrudes part of the Gherkin to form a high-tech letter F.
The series also includes Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright and Zaha Hadid. Now there really is an A-Z of architects...
Archibet is published by Laurence King, £9.95, laurenceking.com