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American Sign Language Matchbooks

Full Set of ASL Matchbooks + 1
Knock Knock Matchbook

You have to roll over the image to get the full effect…

This is from a series of American Sign Language hands that I made from matchbooks I found on the street.

59 Responses to “American Sign Language Matchbooks”

43 Comments

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  1. On April 2nd, 2007 at 11:30, Gabriel said:

    This is nice. I don’t know if you know this guy, but he also makes some nice art. He’s in my friends section of myspace and he’s called beaucoupzero. Just saying…

  2. On April 2nd, 2007 at 13:29, fatima said:

    wow!

  3. On April 19th, 2007 at 12:26, geowulf said:

    Now all that needs to be done is to make a webapp that takes these alphabet images and lets you fill out a form and returns what you wrote in Sign Language Matchbooks.

  4. On June 16th, 2007 at 15:35, Jonathan said:

    I discovered your Youtube channel almost a year ago. Then noticed you finally had some new videos. They’re very cool. Great job

  5. On June 27th, 2007 at 22:37, nex said:

    I have this feeling that one of them doesn’t belong … ;->

  6. On June 28th, 2007 at 13:47, farrelley said:

    Very cool!

  7. On July 24th, 2007 at 02:32, shaun said:

    i am deaf myself and i found this and thought it was awesome!! thanks for doing this!! =D

  8. On September 8th, 2007 at 17:46, Kate said:

    I.Love.This

  9. On October 15th, 2007 at 17:26, Jericah said:

    thats awesome how did you guys do it?

  10. On October 15th, 2007 at 22:06, JK said:

    Jericah: By hand. Folding, gluing, holding until dry. Repeat.

  11. On November 15th, 2007 at 18:15, vaspers aka steven e. streight said:

    Saw this on Frivolous Motion blog. I subscribe to Art Forum and love the underground music and art scene.

    This is astonishing. Reminds me of an evangelical tract I saw once, for the blind. It told the gospel/salvation message with objects, like a heart, that communicated with the sense of touch.

    Thanks for sharing this with us. Pure genius!

    http://twitter.com/vaspers

  12. On December 4th, 2007 at 15:12, RipperJill said:

    Ha, cool! Very cute, too. :)

  13. On December 6th, 2007 at 19:08, mienna1 said:

    That is really clever; honestly.. not many people would have thought of the sign language thing.. The finger, yes. Keep it up.. you have good ideas in that head of yours :D

  14. On December 17th, 2007 at 15:44, corinne said:

    genius, i tell you.

  15. On December 31st, 2007 at 13:53, MANT said:

    Nice addition to the alphabet with the 28th letter!

  16. On January 3rd, 2008 at 00:32, Victor said:

    WOW - this was really clever! I love it! I can’t wait to see more of your work!

    Good job!

  17. On January 6th, 2008 at 16:46, JK said:

    MANT: Your grasp of the English alphabet is staggering.

    I can only hope to have such wonderful comments on the site for each and every one of the 367 days in 2008!

  18. On January 15th, 2008 at 02:53, Christie said:

    Fantastic.

  19. On January 16th, 2008 at 22:27, SkyZheng said:

    Hello,
    We are iidea Creativity Design Magzine,and we are interested in Sign Language Matchbooks. Could you give us some high resolution pics(DPI higher than 300)? After we publish the pics about supplied, we will send magzine to you. Waitting for your feedback, and wish you have a good luck.

  20. On January 22nd, 2008 at 03:46, BAMm said:

    what a hoot! let’s see some1 match that spark of creativity!

    mark jaquette
    illustrationISM
    http://users.rio.com/bamm/illustrationISM/index.html

  21. On January 25th, 2008 at 16:09, Mike said:

    Reminds me of the Larry the Cable Guy bit, where he says his friend is a deaf guy with Tourette’s. He starts spelling words with ASL and keeps throwing in middle fingers :)

  22. On February 22nd, 2008 at 04:26, lynne said:

    this is fab.I’m gonna add a few matchbooks to my sketch kit as i find hands a sod to draw!Brilliant-thankyou! xx

  23. On February 26th, 2008 at 15:27, Jenna said:

    my hearing cousin just give me this web site and i was like wow I love this … good job !!! also let ya know I am deaf …

    congrats, Jenna

  24. On April 23rd, 2008 at 23:39, Hang said:

    This is something I and my friends would want for their Myspace profile

  25. On May 3rd, 2008 at 12:55, Rosa Mendes said:

    YOU ARE NOT GENIUS AND NEAT WITH BAD WORD.

  26. On June 1st, 2008 at 23:15, Eddie Kirby said:

    I am so impressive this. WOW that is one good creative… And, I sent this to my friends about this. Keep up on your creative amazing things!!:-)

  27. On June 1st, 2008 at 23:49, fh said:

    PLEASE REMOVE BAD WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  28. On June 2nd, 2008 at 14:44, steve said:

    photoshopped

  29. On June 3rd, 2008 at 22:15, frank said:

    This would be substantially better without the flipping off matchbook at the end. Seriously, it would be something you could post in classrooms otherwise.

  30. On June 4th, 2008 at 05:39, Liz said:

    You rock dude. Keep up the creativity. You should write out some ASL sentences (nice ones) : )

  31. On June 4th, 2008 at 08:03, putingtikbalang said:

    cool! Great job with these matchboxes. No “I Love You” sign? ;)

  32. On June 4th, 2008 at 21:10, JK said:

    steve: You highly overestimate my abilities using Photoshop. Maybe this photo of the matchbooks taken from another angle will convince you.

    frank: Might I suggest that you draw a black box over what you find offensive prior to showing your students.

    putingtikbalang: No “I love you” on this page, but it was one of my earlier test matchbooks.

  33. On June 5th, 2008 at 01:29, SD said:

    Brilliant use of an everyday object…well done

  34. On June 5th, 2008 at 23:54, shiv said:

    very clever, and as a person who understands BSL not ASL was good in demostrating ASL alphabet, sadly BSL uses 2 hands and matchbook version wouldn’t be possible. vey impressed you had the patience to do it all by hand. Take another photo and sell it to schools for posters!

  35. On June 6th, 2008 at 08:35, putingtikbalang said:

    Oh, great! thanks for the reply, JK. I’ll agree with what Frank said, that these matchbooks are a great idea to show in classrooms. Perhaps the I Love You sign can replace The Bird. whatever works, they’re still great pieces of art. More power! :)

  36. On June 6th, 2008 at 09:10, Fubiz said:

    Excellent!

  37. On June 8th, 2008 at 01:41, Anthony said:

    wow, impressive artwork

  38. On June 9th, 2008 at 00:35, Joshua Debner said:

    Hey, wanted to thank you for posting this. I saved it in my bookmarks knowing I could use it someday. My girlfriend and I would finger spell back and forth to each other in school to avoid getting in trouble with teachers for talking. For valentines day I made bought matchbooks on ebay and made her a poster by making the letters and scanning them. It turned out awesome and I thank you for your inspiration. 300dpi blows up very nicely to make giant posters!

    http://lovejosh.net/files/background.jpg

  39. On June 19th, 2008 at 13:30, nd said:

    those are really cute. you should check out the asl cookies at http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=232831.0

  40. On June 29th, 2008 at 08:59, rayette said:

    Why the bird?

  41. On June 29th, 2008 at 10:57, paresh said:

    simple but smart.

  42. On July 1st, 2008 at 18:33, Quasivoid said:

    Avant Garde!

  43. On July 5th, 2008 at 17:05, Suzanne said:

    GENIUS!

16 Trackbacks

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  1. Trackback at November 30th, 2007 at 14:42
    weather » Blog Archive » There has been an explosion in visual weblogs. Does this

    [...] examples. Viewers Like You, which links to Jonathan Keller’s Sign Language Matchbooks / The Errant Aesthete, branding, interiors, that sort of thing / Smogr, a tumbling, image log type [...]

  2. Trackback at January 4th, 2008 at 13:32
    Grinningskull.com » Random

    [...] at c71123.com, the author has created the finger spelling alphabet out of matchbooks found on the [...]

  3. Trackback at January 4th, 2008 at 13:47
    מה את/ה אומר/ת? » חֶרשים מדליקים

    [...] c71123 דרך [...]

  4. Trackback at January 4th, 2008 at 14:04
    Sign language matchbooks

    [...] JK Keller’s sign language matchbooks - [via Link. [...]

  5. Trackback at January 4th, 2008 at 17:10
    samantha resnick | a portfolio : Welcome 2008

    [...] — c 7 11 23 — JK Keller I stumbled across this mans work today, what JK has done with the match books is really amazing. I recommend looking at his site. All his forms of art are [...]

  6. Trackback at January 6th, 2008 at 17:05
    Tin Foil Soldier » Blog Archive » Matchbook Fun

    [...] » Sign Language Matchbooks « Archive xoxo — c 7 11 23 — JK Keller [...]

  7. Trackback at January 7th, 2008 at 17:06
    The Forma blog » Blog Archive » Photography phriday.

    [...] — ‘Obscene Interiors‘, by Brandt Botes. (Retro sure IS sexy.) — ‘Sign Language Matchbooks‘, by JK Keller. — ‘TapeDeck‘(.org). — ‘Vintage Advertising & [...]

  8. Trackback at January 21st, 2008 at 14:22
    fade theory » sign language matchbooks

    [...] Sign Language Matchbooks by JK Keller. Cool. (via Drawn!) [...]

  9. Trackback at January 22nd, 2008 at 02:32
    unhappymeal.net » Blog Archive » links for 2008-01-22

    [...] Sign Language Matchbooks [...]

  10. Trackback at January 26th, 2008 at 17:26
    Art with Clip Art « BladBlog

    [...] met zeer slim bedachte dingen als zijn verzameling robots gemaakt met kartonen doosjes, zijn gebarentaal lucifersboekjes en deze figuren gemaakt uit de Microsoft Office clipart (dat zijn de standaard beelden die je bij [...]

  11. Trackback at January 28th, 2008 at 18:41
    Sign Language Matchbooks « - + = the yeti crab = + -

    [...] Sign Language Matchbooks Goddamn genius. [...]

  12. Trackback at January 29th, 2008 at 10:42
    The Inside Track » Blog Archive » Sign language

    [...] Keller’s sign language matchbooks. [...]

  13. Trackback at February 27th, 2008 at 21:25
    Light my message « * * * * °

    [...] si cela sotto il nome JK Keller, di piú non so e non ho voluto approfondire (potete farlo voi al suo sito)…mi é bastato questo alfabeto dei segni usati per la comunicazione tra sordomuti ottenuto [...]

  14. Trackback at June 19th, 2008 at 05:31
    Sign Language Alphabet Using Matchbooks - Very Very Cool | Have You Heard About

    [...] The artist is a very clever guy called JK Keller and you can find out more about him over at his c71123 website. [...]

  15. Trackback at June 22nd, 2008 at 08:05
    Links for June 21, 2008 | Melissa Wiley

    [...] American Sign Language Matchbooks - Too cool. HT: Coffeemama [...]

  16. Trackback at July 11th, 2008 at 22:24
    Fantastic Fridays « MassiveTruth

    [...] ASL Matchbooks If you are ever board and find yourself with a bunch of matchbooks … [...]

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