Alef Betty

Alef Betty (word-play on the two first letters of the Hebrew alphabet - Alef and Bet) is Tsili Pines' new website dedicated to modern Hebrew arts and culture. check out these awesome Hebrew Alphabet posters:

Hebrew Woodblock Type

Hebrew drawer, type shop, Cooper Union (photo credit: Brice McGowen)

The type shop here at Cooper Union has some Hebrew woodblocks, not enough to make complete sentences and not a large variety to even make some words, but still are really nice 100 year old blocks. I printed a few of them, just to have a specimen of some Hebrew type.

Children's Books

found these old books that my mom got when she was little, all published in Israel in 1960.

Fractal Alphabet

Sharon Pazner, a Tel Aviv based artist that often uses typography and other graphic design elements in her work, has recently publish a new series in her flickr photo stream; in this fractal alphabet, each letter is comprised of all the characters in the language's alphabet.

Hebrew Fractal Alphabet

English Fractal Alphabet

Ismar David

citation for the United Jewish Appeal, NY, 1980

Born in Germany in 1910, Ismar David studied at the Berlin Municipal school of Arts and Crafts and immigrated to Israel in 1932 where he opened a studio for graphic and interior design. in 1953 moved to New York, where he established his studio specializing in calligraphy, lettering, illustration and book design. David also taught calligraphy at the Cooper Union till 1991.

broadside RN Magazine, NJ, 1971

In 1953 Ismar David released one of the most important Hebrew typefaces, David:

David Hebrew font family, 1954

Zapf wrote about him: The work of Ismar David can always be identified by his characteristic style. [...] His expressive drawings, with their undulating linear quality and unusual construction, show his elegant style in every detail.

Peace Blessing, poster, 1976

Dan Reisinger

Dan Reisinger was born in former Yugoslavia and immigrated to Israel in 1949, after WWII. After serving as the art director for the Israeli Air Force's publications, Reisinger worked and studied across Europe (Brussels, London) and in 1966 returned to Israel where he established his own design studio.

Israel's Independence Day poster, 1974

Throughout his admirable career, Reisinger has dealt with many different aspects of design and culture; political, social and cultural posters, monuments for Yad Vashem- the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, logos for El Al airlines, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Habima national theater, various stamps for the state of Israel, medals of honor for Israel's Defence Forces, and much more...

various logos: El Al, Lili, Tambour and many more

He claims one of his more significant contributions has been to stretch the visual and communicative possibilities of Hebrew letters, through his symbols and logos.

9th Maccabiah stamp, 1973