Modular Alphabet

Structuring letterforms with a common model

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46. Nikita Pashenkov's Alphabot (2000) is a Transformer-like virtual robot “that communicates with humans by changing its shape to form characters of the English alphabet.” The 3D robot is constructed from eight hinged segments, and can smoothly re-fold its shape into any letterform.

Brief

Design a typeface (using any graphic primitives you prefer) so that all of the letters of the alphabet are structured by the same software parameters and graphic logic. For example, you might design an alphabet in which every letter is exclusively constructed from three arcs, or from four rectangles, or from a small grid of squares. After you have designed all of your letters, typeset the entire alphabet in a single image so that it can be seen at a glance.

An essential technical goal is for you to store descriptive parameters for your letters in some kind of array or object-oriented data structure, and then create a single function that renders any requested letter from this data. If you're writing individual functions to draw each letter, you're doing something wrong.

Learning Objectives

Variations

Making It Meaningful

Extending from Adrian Frutiger's Univers (1954), Donald Knuth's computational METAFONT (1977), and Adobe's “Multiple Master” fonts (1994), it has become increasingly common practice to design highly adaptable type systems that go far beyond the rigid limits of static typefaces. Peter Biľak writes: “Prior to Univers, type designers concerned themselves with the relationships between letters of the same set, how an ’A’ is different from a ’B’. Univers goes beyond the quest to design individual letters, attempting instead to create a system of relationships between different sets of shapes which share distinctive parameters.” i

This prompt prioritizes the creative value of constraints. Restricted to designing letterforms with shared parameters, it requires modularity, economy, and an ingenuity about shapes whose variety and complexity students often take for granted. The expressive potential for contingent, interactive, and subtly time-varying form systems should not be overlooked. Take a moment to reflect on your resultant type system. For which letters does the structuring pattern succeed best or fail hardest?

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47. Mary Huang's Typeface: A Typographic Photobooth (2010) is a font whose parameters (such as slant, x-height, etc.) are governed by signals from a real-time face tracker.

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48. David Lu's Letter 3 (2002) presents an interactive alphabet whose letters are formed by manipulating the control points of a single, compound Bézier curve. Each letter can fluidly transform into any other.

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49. In Peter Cho's classic Type Me, Type Me Not (1997), each letter is constructed from two “Pac-Man” filled arcs and is represented by just ten numbers.

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50. In Yuichiro Katsumoto's Mojigen & Sujigen (2016), six interconnected electromechanical elements form the letters of the alphabet by moving into different positions.

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51. Bruno Munari's ABC with Imagination (1960), a children's alphabet book, included a set of modular pieces for typographic play.

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52. In 1878, amidst widespread use of the calligraphic Fraktur blackletter, inventor Friedrich Soennecken sought to modernize and rationalize German typography and penmanship. Soennecken developed Schriftsystem, a method for constructing glyphs exclusively from arcs and straight lines. Decades later, his system influenced the design of the German Institute for Standardization's DIN 1451 Engschrift typeface, now used throughout Germany for many purposes.

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53. Fregio Mecano (“mechanic ornament”) is a set of 20 modular, geometric shapes for constructing letters and images in highly flexible ways. Devised in Italy by Giulio da Milano in the early 1930s, it was released by the Nebiolo typefoundry.

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54. Julius Popp's bit.fall (2001–2016) produces ephemeral texts by releasing droplets of water through a series of precisely timed, computer-controlled solenoid valves.

Additional Projects

Readings

  1. Johanna Drucker, The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination (London: Thames and Hudson, 1995).
  2. C. S. Jones, “What Is Algorithmic Typography?,” Creative Market (blog), May 2, 2016.
  3. Christoph Knoth, “Computed Type Design” (master's thesis, École Cantonal d’Art de Lausanne, 2011).
  4. Donald Knuth, “The Concept of a Meta-Font,” Visible Language 16, no. 1 (1982): 3–27.
  5. Jürg Lehni, “Typeface as Programme,” Typotheque.
  6. Ellen Lupton, Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2010).
  7. Rune Madsen, “Typography,” lecture for Programming Design Systems (NYU).
  8. “Modular Typography,” Tumblr.
  9. François Rappo and Jürg Lehni, Typeface as Programme (Lausanne, France: École Cantonal d’Art de Lausanne, 2009).
  10. Dexter Sinister, “Letter & Spirit,” Bulletins of the Serving Library 3 (2012).
  11. Alexander Tochilovsky, “Super-Veloz: Modular Modern” (lecture, San Francisco Public Library, March 13, 2018).

Notes