2. The Alphabet City

Joanne Dugan started photographing unique New York City typography in order to make reading fun for her son. After publishing a book of these images and discovering the letters’ universal appeal, she founded a company, The Alphabet City, to produce various home products that display these vintage letters. Recently, the MoMA Design Store selected the company’s coasters to be included in its Destination: NYC collection. Dugan sees her project as a preservation effort, considering each of these letters to be a “little piece of history.”