One of my favourite books at primary school was The Lettering Book – do you remember it or am I showing my age?! I favoured a particularly ornate italic script full of lavish flourishes or the bold, chunky Broadway font and thought the ‘computer writing’ was the height of modern. It must have left a strong impression because I worked as a calligrapher for a few years and to this day still look closely at the distinguishing features of different fonts.

Letterboxes are alphabet blocks with a difference. Letterboxes introduce the alphabet not as distinct letters but as geometric shapes that create letters when combined. The cardboard boxes are printed on all sides so that they can be viewed or stacked from any direction, creating a variety of shapes and letterforms.

If adults like what they see, they can join the play with a companion typeface available as a free download.

Perhaps after some solid hours with the Letterboxes, your kids will ace you on ‘Cheese or Font?’ (one of my favourite online time-wasters).

The Letterboxes are a prototype at this stage. We’ll let you know if they go into production.

(via Inhabitots)