Posted by Naomi Firestone-Teeter
It always delights me when I come across a fabulous book cover design (I’ll be doing a round-up soon…), and, while the below images are not from a book cover, the design is just great, and it’s in Hebrew, so it kind of counts…right? And, maybe someone will commission her to design a book cover next!
Tsilli Pines is the designer behind Alef Betty: Modern Hebrew Arts, and her work is beautiful. On her blog she shares the inspiration for her Hebrew alphabet posters:
I was 6 years old when my family moved from Israel to Berkeley, California, so both Hebrew and English were spoken in our house. My brother and I each had a Hebrew alphabet poster from Israel hanging in our rooms when we were growing up.
There are some interesting words in this poster. Words like “lonely” and “illness” alongside more benign words like “artist” and “tall.”
It’s hard to imagine someone designing a language poster now with words like that. But it was good for me to be surrounded by this wide range of letters and words. It made me wonder about life.
I spent a lot of my childhood looking at this poster, and I realized recently that I wanted to design a different kind of poster. I wanted to make something with the Hebrew alphabet, but I wanted it to be modern.
Read more about her story here, and visit her shop and website here.
It’s always nice to end the week with great design.
Originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Naomi is the CEO of Jewish Book Council. She graduated from Emory University with degrees in English and Art History and, in addition, studied at University College London. Prior to her role as executive director and now CEO, Naomi served as the founding editor of the JBC website and blog and managing editor of Jewish Book World. In addition, she has overseen JBC’s digital initiatives, and also developed the JBC’s Visiting Scribe series and Unpacking the Book: Jewish Writers in Conversation.