ABBREVS. – A COLLABORATIVE AMALGAMATION OF ACRONYMS, INITIALISMS, CONTRACTIONS AND CRASIS

Susan LaPorte & Chad Reichert
2025

This book is entitled Abbrevs. (A Dictionary of Abbreviations); A Collaborative Amalgamation of Acronyms, Initialisms, Contractions and Crasis. Co-designed by Susan LaPorte and Chad Reichert.
26 abbreviations were randomly assigned to each other, 52 abbreviations in total. All inspired by an obscure dictionary found by chance at John King Bookstore in Detroit, MI.
We set up some simple-ish rules: 26 total abbrevs each; randomize our starting points; focus on logo types, monograms, heraldry and/or trademarks; limited our time frame; embrace spontaneity.
Chad's guidelines included: Sketch on paper prior to digital explorations. All drawings happen in Glyphs; Stay on time; Shorten when possible; Concentrate on 26 not 1; History matters: Use your knowledge; Have fun.
Sue's guidelines included: Making is learning, learning is making mistakes; Think on your feet, always open for the unexpected; Making time to focus helps; This is no stress zone; Digging through history is never boring.

Chad Reichert and Susan LaPorte have collaborated on numerous typographically inspired projects, including curriculum development, typefaces, exhibitions, and personally motivated curiosities. In these cases, projects typically begin with a visit to John King bookstore in downtown Detroit, where they often find themselves rambling through the stacks and discovering an unusual dictionary that piques their interest. Their first collaboration was a typographic compendium inspired by the dictionary Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, & Preposterous Words.

For this collaboration, they focused on "A Dictionary of Abbreviations,” compiled by Herbert John Stephenson, a lexicon of abridged organizations, auxiliaries, and a host of other amalgamated institutions. As a result, they created a project around the vernacular of logotypes, trademarks, and emblems, using the entries as inspiration. Because Professors Reichert and LaPorte are design educators, they often enjoy assigning tasks; therefore, they each determined a set of abbreviated entries for each other to design a graphic representation for each letter of the alphabet. This 186-page book is a compendium of the work they created together, yet separately, celebrating typographic design history.

Designer
Susan LaPorte
Designer
Chad Reichert