Randomness is not the answer

Using a machine to make things shouldn’t mean that these things have to look mechanical. Design software should not default to mathematical perfection. Created lines, shapes, and colors should be more like objects in nature. They should have texture, depth, expressive irregularities. Type should look alive.

I constructed very basic glyphs from straight lines. Size, weight, rounding, and shading can be set per character. The points of a glyph can be shuffled randomly, generating a more complex and unique character.

I made the tool and I set the parameters. I push the system, sometimes to its extremes. I love how expressive it can become. But is it my expression, or that of a function?

Heute keine Disco

For the theatre piece „Heute keine Disco“ (No disco today) a personalized logotype was requested. The theatrical performance, directed by Sabrina Fischer (Brino), deals with eight people who come together to discuss the club, safer-spaces and being queer.
The logotype was sketched up on paper during a rehearsal, aiming for a fragility yet boldness, representing said spaces. Through the process, the hairline was lost in order to make room for more stability and focus on the boldness of the logo’s character. Through the alteration of the poorly digitalized sketch in softwares which aren’t meant for type design, the logotype got its characteristic flash strokes.

Romance Of The Future exhibition identity

Romance Of The Future is a reflection exhibition on the topic of romantic relationships in the future. Is love between humans and artificial intelligence possible? If so, what could it be? Is this relationship perfectly programmed or passionately unpredictable? What’s this? System error and glitch or a real surge of feelings?

The identity of the exhibition of relations of the future is built on the basis of a display variable font, which was created specifically for this project. The font reflects the combination of human tenderness and the unpredictable feelings of artificial intelligence. The character of the typeface can be defined as: a little nervous, romantic, tense, excited.

Body Experimental Type

This project is the outcome of Haocheng Zhang’s ongoing research, understanding the body as an ‘important and fundamental dimension of self-identifying recognition,’ It is not only the physical body but also the notion of the body in a visual context. Breaking down traditional Western-type design constructs, the project explores types inspired by the human form. The Body Experimental Type was created using the body as a medium. Choreography and performance were used to perceive how the type changes and how movements convey the gravity and type emotion. The Body Experimental Type was purchased and used for its exhibition by the University of the Arts London – London College of Fashion.

Spaghetti

Spaghetti, it’s a font inspired by Italian western movies. What surprise about the old westerns is the lack of special effects. Everything is done in analog, from sound effects to action scenes, where you can notice some beauties of imperfection. To enclose this experience, Spaghetti font has been completely drawn and painted by hand.

Isometric Letters

My goal in this project was to break down all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet to the point they can no longer be identified. This was tested by constructing the letters as cubes and placing them on a three dimensional fixed grid. Each of the letters was gradually rotated 360 degrees perpendicular to its horizontal axis.
I began with the third letter Gimel. Once all the letters were ready I played with
different compositions – some were readable and others looked like random cubes floating in black space.
For the presentation of the project I incorporated AR technology and motion to add extra dimension to the posters.

Offset

Using everyday ephemera objects like a bottle cap and paper clip to form the basis of its simple typographic form, Offset is a hand-drawn slanted typeface with two weights with interesting proportions, regular and offset. The latter weight was created to introduce fun and quirky imbalanced elements in contrast to its regular appearance.

Trisquare Regular

Trisquare is an Experimental Display Typeface, which is inspired by the strokes of the Fraktur alphabet but developed through the composition of triangular and square shapes. It has a particular ancient soul with a digital taste. Trisquare is good to use for Branding, Signage, Packaging, Advertising, Headlines, Magazines, Book titles, or everything you want to use it for.

GREY ZONE

GREY ZONE refers to a situation that is unclear or ambiguous. it pivots this original meaning to a more figurative one so that it stresses the fact that when two people come together to form a harmonious relationship, they might have to endure conflict and inevitable clashes in the process. Black and white figures crisscrossed on the paper formulates some letters, and these letters and the back spaces complete the whole picture. In such way, spontaneous moments and choices in our life determine our journey and ourselves as well, and it reminds us we are all floating and living in the grey area.

Shrooms

During Mike’s final exam, he designed and conceptualized ten display typefaces. Part of this work were 30 poster studies, which served to experimentally illustrate the resulting fonts in the form of exhibition and editorial design. Shrooms, showcasing the same called typeface, is one of these 30 posters and is compatible with augmented reality. The typeface and the poster should make the viewer feel like trippin’ through a weirdly colorful forest.

Zwiespalt

Zwiespalt is a poster that wants to aggressively showcase the political conflict on our planet. Highlight of the artwork is the huge spiky Z letter in the center. Working with a very loud red and black color combination, Zwiespalt just screams for attention and can also be viewed 180°.

Wagnis

The design and naming of Wagnis is inspired by the imperfectionism of the daring experiment the typeface is itself. Every glyph was a first try using the path tool. Without using any sort of grid or rules, Wagnis is made to be a dare of modern and provocative, yet fascinating, type design. With spiky edges and irregular sizing, it is supposed to look like a mistake, yet the aesthetic is so unique and
interesting that you want to take a closer look at every single glyph. The font style of Wagnis is called irregular, because it is everything
else than your regular everyday typeface.

King Place

For a music venue in London we built a modulator called SoundWaveMachine that transformed sound into a visual. We took various musical sounds that make up the programme and digitally transformed them into unique visual waves. In turn a new logotype was created for each performance, season and staff member.

Trikolore

The We:deutschland project is about German identity so each letter is made up of the three colours of the
German flag (trikolore). The project is also crucially a study on human dna and the various
components that make up our genetic code – to reference this we created a typeface clearly
made up of different elements, that needs to be decoded.

PencilBox

A box of pencils produced as a promotional piece for a box company. We designed a typeface and illustrations using pencil component shapes. This was used for the identity for Pencil Box, the pencils, the insert and postcards. This typeface is unique to the Pencil Box project and works with the illustrated characters. Five shapes make up the alphabet, punctuation and numbers. Its use carries through from the box, to the insert, the character’s names, the postcard