The letters of our alphabet have a fascinating history and a promising future. We can see, hear and even feel words, but what’s next? Dutch design studio Autobahn and Mark Buxton Perfumes introduce GLYPHS – The Alphabetic Perfume Collection and invite you to write your story in perfume.

about GLYPHS – The Alphabetic Perfume Collection is a series of niche to share perfumes based on the historical origin of the Latin alphabet. Our alphabet originated almost 4000 years ago in the Sinai desert. For instance, the A was an image of an Ox carved in stone. Turn the letter A upside down and you can still see the horns and head. All letters can be traced back to a historic representation.

 

perfume – To determine the smell of a letter, Autobahn and Buxton decided to go back to the origins of our alphabet, about which Autobahn made the acclaimed book A is van Os in 2018. It explains the history of our letters, which originated almost 4000 years ago in the Sinai desert and come from images cut in stone: the A was an image of an Ox, the letter B stood for House and the C for Boomerang, etc. This fact was the starting point for the creation of the perfumes and the name GLYPHS, which means to engrave, to carve. “Now we know where our letters come from, we also know how they smell,” says Autobahn. “For the first time in history we can create a scent-based writing system.”

 

scent of letters – Capturing the scent of letters is no easy job. Mark Buxton and David Chieze took the liberty to develop three scents, based on an ox, a house and a boomerang. It resulted in an extremely surprising series of perfumes contained in a pen bottle, so that the perfume can be used to write letters directly on the skin. The perfumes are made with the highest quality ingredients, so that every perfume conveys the concept of the letter and lasts a long time. Since the first letters were cut in stone, each perfume is presented in a unique, handmade stone holder. The package comes with information about the development of the letter, including three fonts that represent the development of the alphabet.

 

 

Interested in information about the story behind GLYPHS?

 

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