City as a museum of letters

We can approach the knowledge of the city from multiple ways. We think that urban typography is a very attractive element to know the cities. In this article vindicates typography as an educational value, which allows also a better knowledge of the urban culture. Letters as a design constitute a decisive visual element in the urban environment. This article purposes a new look upon the city, at the same time that it opens up unusual spaces linked to the cultural arena and suitable geographies for the creation of learning spaces. The city is offered to us full of messages, patrimonial elements that can turn out to be very attractive if we observe them from new, interdisciplinary, suggestive or creative standpoints. Visual arts educators have a powerful graphic resource with which to articulate the complex communicative network of streets. We vindicate walking as an aesthetic practice, strolling around the city as a very suitable cultural means to motivate our university students. Following the trails of letters we find trajectories that lead us to art, to heritage, to literature, to photography, and very especially, to the educational context. We have at our disposal, in our cities, a genuine museum woven together with the threads of the alphabet.

► Citizens need to know the graphical and cultural possibilities of urban letters. ► The education in visual arts offer us a critical look of the urban scene. ► Letters serve us as point of support for rediscover the city visual heritage. ► Educators are not provided with information about calligraphies and typographies. ► Urban spaces can be explored much better observing his typographies.