Urban Play

Droog Design invited Thonik to structure the exhibition and design the visual communication for Urban Play, a post graffiti street art project aimed at inspiring city-dwellers to take action to appropriate urban public space. We used the idea that typography can also be conceived as an urban game. Zebra crossings and bends can be translated into strokes and segments of circles from which to construct an urban alphabet. This alphabet creates the visual identity of Urban Play. It links the cover and the artists’ contributions in the catalogue, and fills the banners that mark the location of the works of art along Amsterdam’s waterfront. Interpreted as three-dimensional blocks, the letters of this alphabet function as the carriers of the prints and the screens showing the exhibitors’ interventions.