CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 11/13/2025

Pop-up pleasure in Kelli Anderson's astonishing 'Alphabet in Motion'

When graphic designer and paper engineer Kelli Anderson came to our offices a few years ago to explain her idea for a 2-volume, 9.5 x 12-inch pop-up book featuring some of the most complex, sculptural, and yet playfully interactive examples of type design ever conceived by persons sane or insane, now or ever, our first thought was: impossible. Second thought: magical; how many can we get? Pictured here, the letter A, along with a description of the letter’s evolution from an ancient Egyptian pictogram dated 3100 BCE; a 3D rendering of Noordzij’s Cube, showing how slight changes affect a single letterform; a mobile-phone-powered projector that allows for undulating variations of the letter J; and interpolated Ps. Along with 13 other pop-ups, this astonishing and equally fascinating publication also features an interactive cover that allows the reader to toggle from the letter A to the letter Z with the satisfying swipe of a single finger.