In Common, 2017

In Common, 2017 splits the Cyrillic alphabet (in its Bulgarian version of 30 letters) in two parts. In the first are the letters which Cyrillic has in common with the Latin alphabet. In the second are the leftover letters, those that are particular only to the Cyrillic alphabet.  Those two parts are presented in two blocks and printed on billboards, postcards or T-shirts. 

The Cyrillic writing system was developed in the 9^th century, to accommodate specific Slavic sounds that did not exist in Greek.  However its typography was at first heavily based on the Greek script, with some additional letters and ligatures. It was then reformed in the 18^th century to resemble more the Latin letterforms. As a result, 11 of the Cyrillic letters today, coincide perfectly with some Latin letters (although mostly corresponding to entirely different sounds), while 19 (of those in the Bulgarian alphabet) are completely different letters. The Bulgarian alphabet with its 30 letters is among the shortest of the Cyrillic alphabets, which can reach up to 33 letters in some Slavic languages.