As a typographer, Karel Teige modifies the existing alphabet as a design component for books, stationary, and other products. This inevitably changed the dynamics and principles within advertising and media. In the 1926 book Abeceda (alphabet), he uses joy as a thematic concept. Teige and others of Devetsil including Vitezslav Nezval and Karel Paspa decided to re-design the letters in a fun, poetic form (Mansbach 64). Teige incorporated the Latin alphabet and photographs of the woman Milca Mayerova (Mansbach 64).
At the time, these modern design pages, show a strong emphasis on both typography and imagery. The approach focuses not only on the text but visually through the photographs. The expression displays geometry of the letters combined with gymnastic images of the woman. He puts text in a visual sense through the photography of the women. Abeceda’s alphabet pages create a flow through the visual grouping of the single letter and woman. However, there is a little or no size difference when it comes to the placement of both the text and images. In modern advertising, there is usually a stronger emphasis on either the image or the type. But, Teige successfully combines typography and photography.
