The Alfalfabet Poster: The Impossible Alphabet
An alphabet you can get lost in. Every letter of Alfalfabet is a frame that folds back on itself in a way no real object could: follow an edge and it turns from a floor into a wall into a ceiling. Tiny figures run, climb, sit, and leap across the letters, exploring a world where up and down keep trading places. At the bottom, a line from Carl Jung: Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakes.
A typeface first. Alfalfabet was designed at Alfalfa Studio in Harlem as a complete typeface, inspired by the impossible figures artists and mathematicians have played with for a century. Every letter is drawn by hand by artist Rafael Esquer and the design team at Alfalfa Studio. Then two of the little figures got a love story of their own: watch the animation below.
🏃 LITTLE PEOPLE, IMPOSSIBLE LETTERS: Look for the pack of runners racing along one edge, a cyclist near the G, a dog out for a walk, and someone mid-jump over the dark. The longer you look, the more of them turn up.
🔤 THE TYPEFACE COMES WITH IT: The full Alfalfabet family, six fonts, arrives by email right after checkout, before the poster even ships. It's a display typeface, made for headlines, posters, and anything set big. Use it free for personal and commercial work; we ask only that you don't share the font files themselves, and that you send us what you make with it. The full license is in the download. Just want the fonts? They're a free download on their own, too.
🏆 AN AWARD-WINNING POSTER: Alfalfabet won an Applied Arts Design Award in 2018, in the Typographic Poster category. It comes from the same studio as Iconic New York, which won awards from PRINT, Applied Arts, and Graphis.
🎁 A MEANINGFUL GIFT: For a graphic designer or type lover (who gets a working typeface as well as a poster), a therapist or psychology graduate who'll know the Jung line, or anyone who likes art that rewards a second look.
🖨️ A LIMITED EDITION OF 500: Offset printed in Hyderabad, India, by Pragati Offset, which lists three SAPPI International Printer of the Year awards. Each of the 500 prints is offered signed or unsigned, your choice, and comes with a Letter of Authenticity. Once they're gone, this run won't be reprinted.
♥️ OUR GUARANTEE: Not fully satisfied? Reach out within 30 days and we'll make it right.
*Important note*
The frames in the pictures are for display only; the poster does not come with a frame.
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© Alfalfa New York – this is an original design of Alfalfa New York. Purchase of this artwork does not transfer commercial reproduction rights.
Ownership and copyright of all images and intellectual property remains with Alfalfa New York LLC.