The Artphabet turns art into ABC: from a soup-can letter to three Artist Series mockups
César Cid rethinks letters through 26 artists. Red-and-white packaging, white bricks and yellow figures show how depth, space and posture transform a readable shape.
How can a letter suggest art before spelling? In César Cid's The Artphabet, a letter becomes a three-dimensional image: A takes the form of a red-and-white soup can, while B acquires white brickwork and a red balloon. The project draws on 26 artists. CESS's website also presents Artist Series, developing complete A–Z sets through the visual language of a single artist. Together, they shift attention from recognising an artist to discovering how many shapes one visual vocabulary can accommodate.
Beyond surface patterns: thickness and openings
In the main visual, the red-and-white can loses its complete cylindrical outline and stretches into A's sloping legs. The central opening keeps the letter readable. Packaging text, metallic rims and surface creases preserve the impression of a container. Rather than a letter simply printed on a can, the can itself becomes the letter. Viewers move between an everyday product and a graphic form, noticing a familiar object behaving differently before reading an explanation.
The neighbouring B works differently. White brick texture continues over its face and sides, with a black silhouette of a girl reaching towards a red heart-shaped balloon. Two openings cut the wall into a letter. At the upper right, the balloon acts almost like punctuation extending beyond the outline, echoing A's larger red surface at a smaller scale. These are effects within a digital composition; the pictured wall, can and balloon do not establish the materials of a physical sculpture.
Three ABC mockups, three different rhythms
The website's Banksy-inspired Artist Series mockup places brickwork, a girl and a balloon within A, B and C. A's diagonals and C's opening require the reaching gesture and balloon to be arranged differently. Three white-bordered images tilt and overlap, suggesting a group of prints that could be combined. They demonstrate a series arrangement, rather than three new works created by Banksy himself or an exhibition photographed by TIDEZINE.
Banksy-inspired Artist Series ABC arrangement mockup, not new Banksy works or an exhibition photograph.
The Miró-inspired ABC mockup uses fine black lines, red, yellow and blue planes, spherical elements and star-like ends. Compared with the heavier brick forms, it leaves much more grey background visible, bringing curves and spaces forward. An eye-like circle within B, the red sphere above C and its star-shaped lower end provide distinct resting points for the gaze. A limited palette produces different expressions through changes in position.
Miró-inspired Artist Series ABC mockup using black lines and primary colours.
Letters can organise bodies as well as symbols
The Keith Haring-inspired mockup builds ABC from yellow figures, with short marks outside black outlines suggesting movement. A resembles people supporting each other; B stacks upright and bent bodies; C connects figures around a curve. Strokes and bends become limbs and torsos. Reading involves tracing how bodies join, as well as identifying a symbol.
Keith Haring-inspired Artist Series ABC mockup built from yellow figures.
All four images are the studio's public main visual or arrangement mockups. The original 26-letter project should be distinguished from Artist Series, and digital images from printed editions or physical installations. Specific letters or combinations can be explored through the official Artphabet project page. It does not provide one uniform list of prices, dimensions and shipping terms. Three-dimensional shadows do not mean every work is sold as a sculpture. Within the images, the interest lies in how texture, empty space and bodily posture change the pace of reading the same ABC.
