This birthday-party announcement was inspired by the methodology of “gifts,” the materials of kindergarten invented by Friedrich Froebel in the mid-19th century. Norman Brosterman’s book, Inventing Kindergarten (1997), explains that “these gifts were used in short sessions of directed play to create pictures or structures that fit loosely into three fundamental categories—forms of nature, forms of knowledge and forms of beauty.”

The custom letters in this invitation were “discovered” while playing with two three-dimensional objects, which were then digitalized for two-color letterpress printing. Limiting the objects and their resulting shapes—a semicircle and a straight line at 45 or 90 degrees—enhanced, paradoxically, the possibilities of creation and the complexity of the design method.

In spite of the legibility, it is playful and joyful; all achieved with type and color. It’s its own form; the harmony in the original type is good.