Generative Typography
Virus structures create letterforms

I wanted to experiment with negative connotations and structures as a starting point for a project as design often tends to be positive in purpose. However, the result was the conversion of something negative into something positive. I explore how negative structures such as viruses could be transformed into positive communicative structures such as typography.

The process was one of trial and error in which I hacked certain parameters, planted seeds and watched to see if recognisable letterforms developed. For the seed shape I used a very basic viral structure. Other parameters such as maximum curvature of the letter were informed by the angles within the virus diagram. The code was created by hacking and re-purposing an existing piece of sine wave code from an unknown author.

 

 

 

 

The result references the wireframe aesthetic and structural nature of a virus diagram but transforms the basic shape into something of communicative use.

What is interesting about the way some of the letters form is that the longer you let the viral typography application run, the more it deconstructs the type and becomes impossible for the computer to process the information. This can be seen in the letter M above.

The entire alphabet is a work in progress as it is experimental. More to come soon.