Shouldn't Letter-Shaped Educational Toys Be Designed To Look Like Actual Letters?

Shouldn't Letter-Shaped Educational Toys Look Like Actual Letters?

Over the past 25 years, Tobias Frere-Jones has created some of the world’s most widely used typefaces. He has taught at the Yale University School of Art since 1996, gives lectures around the world, and has work in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Here at the Eye, Frere-Jones shares a post from his new blog about his frustration with the type design of letter-shaped children's toys.

Letters are scattered all over the living room floor. Not designs of my own, but toys for our son. Letters for sticking on refrigerator doors, fitting into puzzles, stamping in finger-paint, or floating in a bathtub. There’s even a bag of gummy letters in the kitchen.

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