By Margherita Cole on March 18, 2022

Each iconic landmark is made entirely of letters that spell out its city’s name.

Yemen-based graphic designer Mohamed Al-Jaadaby builds iconic monuments using only letters. His ongoing series of minimalist illustrations feature the names of some of the world’s most iconic cities inside of major landmarks.

To achieve these puzzling designs, Al-Jaadaby manipulates each individual character to fit the architecture associated with the metropolis. In the case of Athens, for instance, he fits each letter inside the base of the famous Parthenon, imitating the columns that hold up the famous ancient Greek temple. Similarly, in his Istanbul icon, Al-Jaadaby extends the tallest point of most of the letters into lengthy minarets, while the “b” bends backward into a half-circular shape reminiscent of the Çamlıca Mosque, the largest mosque in Turkey.

Interestingly, it does not take long for viewers to make out the name that is disguised in the structure, regardless of how it is manipulated. Al-Jaadaby manages to integrate the characters elegantly into each design and emphasizes the minimalism by limiting the series to a white and black palette. If you look carefully at the background, you can see a photograph of the real-life inspiration framing the striking emblem.[…]

More: Clever Typography Hides City Names in Minimalist Illustrations of Landmarks