Numbers that reconcile

I came across some pictures of numerals this morning. They're by Jaime Fernandez  ("Tatalab") .

I liked the playfulness of them so I investigated further.

He'd made these digits for Yorokobu Magazine, where it says, in Spanish, something like this:

Jaime Tatalab hated maths until invited to create some numbers. These numbers. Then he found out that this aversion came from far away. "I discovered that it was a hate acquired by the way they taught me," says the designer. 

"These numbers are a truce with them and I thought that everything is on the forms. We can learn complicated things if we approach them in a simple and playful and playful way." And with that in mind, even the inspiration came from school. "I have relied on children's games and balls on rails."

(I've reworked the Google page translate of this, but need a bit of help with the translation!)

And here I found this:

"Yorokobu magazine invited me to create numbers for their numerology section. It was an open brief, I've never liked maths when I was young, and by making the project I started to feel a truce. From that idea I worked the concept - ¨Have fun and learn something¨."

I was delighted when I saw the numbers actually move, construct themselves:

And here's what these great numbers and Jaime Fernandez's words remind me about:

• We can and should use the pleasing to make a truce, or better still, before that becomes necessary, to create a friendship with numbers and maths. The maths content my even be a little reduced - making beautiful digits for instance - but the attraction, the bond, dare I say the love, is important. Often that pleasing thing will be something visual (see my Pinterest board Everything is Number) but it could be dance, drama, humour...

• And, in the event, there must be an awful lot of maths in the creation of these figures. How, after all, do you get those curves, those movements? It's all maths!