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Process video of Generative Typography by John Oquist of IBUILDWORLDS

Created by John Oquist for the 35th Type Director’s Club Annual in 2015, Generative Typography features clouds of particles formed in the shape of typographic glyphs, to then be exerted on by some kind of force created by the program. What arises from this is a set of striking letterforms with a strong element of motion that is rarely seen in typography. The initial letter itself is created with a wireframe in the 3D modelling program, Blender, then populated with particles, and movement is added with the help of the particle system baked into the program itself.

In-program view of model deterioration

What I really love about this project is that the organic, fluid nature of the deformation against the rigidity of typography creates an incredibly compelling letterform, which I’d hope to echo in my own Final Project.

More of Oquist’s work can be found on Behance, Dribbble, and the IBUILDWORLDS website.

Full alphabet of Buchstabengewitter

Similarly, but in a two-dimensional space, Buchstabengewitter created by designer and programmer Ingo Italic and Letters Are My Friends in 2012 warps letterforms in a different way, and focuses on the transition between letterforms.

Experiments of the Letters of My Friends opening animation using Buchstabengewitter

Created, animated, and morphed in vvvv, each glyph slowly bleeds into the next as the contour of the letterform is connected to the contour of the surrounding circle. The implementation seems fairly simple, but the effect that it creates is profound and engaging. However, I do wish that there was some variation in its execution since it seems fairly simple to implement – what other effects could be created, and is an internal typographic contour necessary to create these glyphs?

Static images of the full Buchstabengewitter alphabet