Giving Character to Characters

A project by Richard The | Design Ecology Group | MIT Media Lab

Organic Typography

In most applications using digital typography today (e.g., animation or screen display), designers rely on existing typefaces. The possibilities for altering and transforming these typefaces are exploited in many ways. What is currently not explored is another large field of typography: the dynamic, flexible, and organic appearance of handwritten typography or calligraphy. This kind of typography is only brought into the digital realm by laborious processes such as scanning; this is because current file formats for type describe the outlines of the individual letters, not the essence/skeleton/model of a letter that we use when writing by hand. This project tries to explore the possibilities of computational and generative processes to improve and change the visual appearance of typography.

Screenshot of stroke-based skeleton

Screenshot of stroke-based skeleton-detail

Digital Type VS Handwriting

We are exploring ways to keep written, personal expression a part of our digital life, as well as methods for our personal communication to continue to inherently express our personality, status, and current emotions. For example, in our digital lives, what will a signature look like, or a quickly scribbled love note? We are working with a new typographic format and experimenting with input devices inherent to human expression, such as gesture, voice, and body motion, to address these questions.

Possible Applications

Our target audience are first and foremost designers and visual programmers. Some of the applications that we see for this project are:

Giving Character to Characters | A project by Richard The | Design Ecology Group | MIT Media Lab