generative typeface type design, concept, development in processing Project at Design School of Mainz
2010
elien is a generative monospace typeface designed and developed in processing. Its glyphs are generated by metaballs placed alongside the letter skeleton and used to build transitions of small spacing between them as needed. Thus new forms occur not only between individual metaballs but also between the neighboring letters. The size of the balls and their circles is randomly generated. This and other parameters give the typeface a strong generative character and allow for unlimited variations.
The customisation panel on the bottom of the application helps the user experiment with different parameters of elien – using density, contrast, spacing, and level parameters to create unlimited variations of shapes and export them.
Contrast
Contrast describes the difference in the sizes of metaballs and thus has a direct influence on the shapes of the characters. Contrast also affects the range of values of the random generator. The combination of density and contrast gives us a huge place to experiment.
Density
Density determines the number of metaballs on the lines. The lower the density, the fewer transitions can be built between the neighboring metaballs. Thus, the letters look “incomplete” and, in extreme cases, barely recognizable. The higher density requires more processing power, as more metaballs must be calculated.
Spacing
Spacing defines the spacing between the letters. The smaller the spacing, the more transitions occur. This affects not only the shapes of the letters but also the grey level of the text.
Levels
Levels represent the number of circles outlined within the metaballs. Up to five levels can be calculated. This parameter has no direct impact on the shape of the letters but dramatically expands the variation range of the script.
When using this setting it is important to consider that a higher number of levels will require more processing capacity. In this mode it is recommended to only generate a few letters or to reduce the density.
Explore the unlimited variations and shapes, and export the generated content of the stage as a scalable vector (PDF) file.
