Andrei Popa’s Quarantine Alphabet

Andrei Popa is an illustrator based in New York and has been recognised by The One Club of Creativity as one of The Young Ones 2020 which is such a great achievement! He has worked with SAMSUNG, Glamour Magazine, NESCAFÉ in his past in advertising plus a lot more.

The one piece of his design which I was introduced to and the piece that I will be basing this blog post about is his Quarantine Alphabet which he created in Bucharest where he was living during the global pandemic, where people had to quarantine.

The alphabet is made of 26 separate letters which have people in them. Each letter is based upon a different activity that people where he was living took part in during the pandemic. Some of these activities include weight lifting, mopping the floor and reading.

It is a new way of bringing the global pandemic into graphic design and mixing it with making your own typeface, whilst trying to stay sane in the isolation period.

His work seems so simple, which is what I love. I am imagining all of the personalities that come through with each letter. Those figures that are in yoga poses to create a letter make me laugh since I know for sure I wouldn’t be able to hold those kinda poses, yet in lockdown, doing anything to help keep yourself from going up the wall was the way forward (even if it was bending over backwards). His beautiful colour choice and structure of this design add to the reasons why the piece is featured in my blog. The grids used seem so inline, which can relate to my time in lockdown since everyday was pretty much the same as we couldn’t leave the house.

Go check his work out … https://probablyanillustrator.com

Emily :)

Images from https://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/andrei-popas-quarantine-alphabet-portrays-life-in-isolation-inside-an-apartment-building-in-bucharest/