WE’VE ALL at times been amused by advertising signs that have lost a letter or two –  H O L L Y W  O   D  in Los Angeles is a notorious example – but Shoreditch creative Al MacCuish (pictured,  left) put his observation to good use.

He was sitting on the top deck of a bus when he noticed a shop sign with missing letters – and came up with an idea that will encourage children to read.

“It suddenly dawned on me that the alphabet is tremendously important to all our daily lives,” he recalls. “But most of us take it for granted; all except children.

“Letters suddenly become new words, and those new words begin to access ideas – and it struck me as a fun idea that they might actually be alive.”

MacCuish made the thought into a story about a top-secret government department, the Ministry of Letters, where all the letters and words in the country are created.

Luciano Lozano and Jim Bletsas (pictured, right), colleagues at Mother, a Redchurch Street firm (in the stylish E2 7DD Biscuit Building), worked with MacCuish, head of entertainment, on the result, Operation Alphabet.

It is the first in a planned series of books, apps and products that aim to bring the alphabet to life.

David Altheer 021011 

* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained.

* Operation Alphabet (Ministry of Letters), by Al MacCuish and Luciano Lozano, designed by Jim Bletsas (Thames & Hudson), £9.95