Roger that!

Type lovers and CB Radio fans will welcome an exhibition that opens at London’s Kemistry gallery this week dedicated to the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s Phonetic Spelling Alphabet.

Not sure what that is? Well, let me spell it out for you. Tango, hotel, echo, Romeo, echo: any closer?

The ICAO’s alphabet – which features the likes of alpha, bravo and Charlie – was developed in 1932 to make radio communication clearer in times of bad receiving conditions, regardless of the speakers native language.

For the exhibition, which opens on 24 March, three London-based design groups – Eat Sleep Work/Play, Inventory Studio and Julia – have brought each of the  characters to life with a mixture of clever typography and graphics.

Turn a Yankee baseball player upside down and he suddenly becomes a letter ‘y’ and the curves of the letter ‘b’ can transform into a pair of clapping hands – bravo!

It’s a simple idea, excellently executed, showing clever, funny and sometimes absurd connections between the letter and its code. Over and out.

Roger that! runs from 24 March – 16 April at Kemistry Gallery, 43 Charlotte Road, London EC2A.