MIXOTYPE
An experimental semi randomic typeface
Mixotype was the final outcome of our thesis project called "Features for the Future", in which we studied the history and the creative applications of OpenType technology. This was the thesis project at Politecnico di Torino, that we presented on the 24th of july 2013.
We applied this study to a project in which we put together the oldest and the newest typographic technologies. We started from wood and lead typefaces, mostly still digitally unpublished, and created a font that, with a particular code written by us specifically for this project, makes the font alternate from 6 different families of glyphs for each letter, number and punctuation sign.
The rotation happen according to a particular graphic rythm, to have a controlled result while still mantaining a randomic look.
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The process consisted of 6 steps:
1 – OpenType study: we studied the history of OpenType technology, we analyzed some case studies of OpenType savy fonts and we learned everything we could about how the code works and about the different features.
2 – Type finding & selection: we dived in Archivio Tipografico types collection and selected the typefaces that we found most interesting and less known.
3 – Proof printing: of many lead, wood and plastic typefaces
4 – Vector tracing: so to have digital outlines of the glyphs we were interested in.
5 – OTF Engineering: we taught the typeface how to behave
6 – Release: partyyyy
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To present the font we designed several items: a flyer, a specimen and a silkscreen poster.
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The flyer was printed in letterpress, using lead type, wood hands and polymer plates.
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The specimen was an a5 sized booklet and featured an a4 poster in the middle, showing all the glyphs included in the font.
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The poster was a2 sized. It was screen-printed with the split fountain technique.
The poster was a2 sized. It was screen-printed with the split fountain technique.
"To understand is to find patterns among chaos" is a sentence that represents our whole work: during the process of creation of the font we understood to always search for a clear underlying structure even for the most randomic result.
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During the whole process we kept a photographic blog to document the process and to check the actual interest of people for our project, with encouraging results.
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Read the whole thing on Issuu! (in Italian)
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Thank you!
Thank you!
