DIA is a graphic design studio specializing in kinetic brand identity and typographic systems. They rely on emerging technologies and generative tools for project deployment and brand outreach. For start-up brand smlxl, the studio drew inspiration from its typefaces to create play on scale and fluid, variable movements.
Aniko Mezo’s creative interpretation of Sylvia Plath’s autobiographical short story, The Bell Jar, goes far beyond literature. Using the font design to illustrate her protagonist’s descent into mental illness, Lora becomes a variable typeface that perfectly reflects this character-changing narrative arc. It is an innovative literary translation that demonstrates how typography can be a powerful tool to allow readers access to an invisible world.
With his project Hard Drive Paper, David Guez recontextualises Chris Marker’s La Jetée and explores the translation of digital data onto paper. By printing over 700 pages of binary code into physical text, he challenges our notions of information preservation while provoking reflection on the long-term survival of information storage methods.
Climate Crisis Font is an open source variable font made by the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper in order to make climate change tangible. Its states of variability are based on data collected by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), an information and reference center related to polar and cryospheric research. The period covered is from 1979 to 2019, and then to 2050, where the data are about the predictions based on current trends from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Andreas Gysin specializes in design and programming. He creates animations using time-varying glyphs. These make it possible to create abstract compositions and semi-organized movements. The characters used as a texture become the basic elements to form the animation. A switch move for each character brings another level of variability.
Afterimage is a graphic design studio whose practice explores generative design and creative coding, experimenting with algorithms, but also custom data and tools. This animation explores the limits of readability with a movement reminiscent of water, combined with mirror effects. The loop makes it possible to give a particular atmosphere and a sustained rhythm which enriches the meaning of the word, or, if necessary, clarifies the identity of the studio.
Character design has taken a completely different turn since the appearance of artificial intelligence. This tool makes it possible to obtain realistic and complex results. On the other hand, you have to master prompts, a combination of words used to generate precise visuals. The quality of the visual lies in the mastery of the writing rather than the drawing. The letter offers a canvas with infinite possibilities.
The work of the company Adrien M & Marie Claire B balances between visual arts and living arts. The intersection between publishing and augmented reality here modifies our usual relationship with the book, by presenting an "imposed" story to the public. This unique interpretation of the book undermines the perception of "the death of the author" as evoked by Barthes, according to which the reader's interpretation takes precedence over any "definitive" meaning intended by the author. In this context, access to a tablet is essential to appreciate the work. Here, print and digital complement each other, but if the experience of the work is increased, its semiotic richness is impoverished.
In October 2022, the Experimental Type Festival, an event around experimental typography, took place entirely online. Bringing together design specialists like Andreas Gysin, Gianpaolo Tucci, Daniel Wenzel, Basile Fournier, André Burnie, My Kim Bui, Talia Cotton and many others. We were able to discover a range of projects exploiting the new possibilities offered by programming and virtual reality. Interactivity and animation expand the possibilities of transforming traditional typographic elements into new and captivating experiences.
Papier machine is a project initiated by Marion Pinaffo & Raphaël Pluvinage at the Ateliers ENSCI in Paris. This booklet gathers a family of 13 electronic paper toys, ready to be cut, colored, folded, assembled or torn. Each of these toys is screen printed with special inks with distinct electrical properties. These toys aim to reveal what lies behind the magic of our machines: a world of materials, shapes, colors, stories and even smells. The movement and the contact allow to generate sounds according to the manipulation by the user.
Based in Prague, Czech Republic, Alex Slobzheninov is a graphic designer specializing in typography. This video presents his recent portfolio, implementing the possibilities of deformation, movement and augmented reality applied to typography. The variability of the characters adds dynamism to all the graphic proposals. It explores typography as an experience.
Yehwan Yen Song experiments with the cell phone to create interactive typographic compositions, through the use of magnets and human warmth. In this project, the common gesture of writing with the fingers is transformed from a physical movement to a simple touch, mimicking that of a keyboard. At the intersection of the material and the digital, the hybridity is revealed by the combination of a print on the fingers, mixing the tangible and the digital.
GlyphDrawing.Club, designed and developed by Heikki Lotvonen and Ian Tuomi, is an online text art and modular design editing tool. “It’s inspired by the limitations and possibilities of old-school ASCII art editors” – or, the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a character encoding standard for electronic communication, often used to make text-based visual art – “brought to modern times,” Heikki tells It’s Nice That. “The editor is based on an adjustable grid into which typographic symbols can be inserted from any font. It’s best suited to creating modular type design, illustrations, ASCII art, concrete poetry and more.”
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In this interview for United Editions, Hamish Muir and Paul McNeil of studio MuirMcNeil discuss their approach to design and the thinking behind System Process Form, their remarkable new publication now funding on the Volume platform.
https://www.uniteditions.com/blogs/news/analog-algorithms-a-q-a-with-muirmcneil
Pat Kim is a New York based designer/artist working primarily in objects, furniture, and sculpture. His approach is defined by constant experimentation in materials and methods gleaned from traditional craft. His work is rooted in the philosophy of sculptural simplicity and enduring quality.
Each Moire print is a one of a kind impression. Made by inking and rolling a special hand turned wood block, each print expresses a unique gesture.