Alphazoo 
by Alfredo de Santis

Alphazoo is not a conventional zoo. It hosts the most uncommon animals in the word: wild vowels and consonants near extinction.

This ABC transforms letters into animals simply by adding a pair of eyes and a mouth to each shape, in a graphic game that invites young readers to play with letters to invent their own beastly alphabet.

With its fresh take and modern design, it’s hard to believe that this book by Italian designer Alfredo De Santis was first published in 1968 by Emme Edizioni, the visionary publisher who brought avant-garde children’s titles to the Italian market by authors such as Leo Lionni, Iela and Enzo Mari, Tomi Ungerer,Yutaka Sugita, Bruno Munari, Luigi Veronesi, Maurice Sendak, Emanuele Luzzati, Bob Gill.

A timeless design lesson of reading shapes and symbols through a different visual lens.

Rights sold:

France: éditions MeMo, Spring 2023
Italy: Lazy Dog Press