After learning about the history of type and tech, talking with experts, running workshops, surveys and talks, predict what type design will look like, but the work in this project demonstrates the potential for something different. AI in its current state can contribute to type design in three general ways: (A) Automation, (B) Interfacing and (C) Creativity. My hope is that improved accessibility will drive people to collaborate on small, open-source tools.
First of all, that is how we can design for friction in our work. Often, the aim seems for things in our daily life and practice to become more efficient, slicker, and more uniform. Transactions with machines are perceived to be smoother than interactions with fellow humans. With the rise of AI, technology evolves in our perception as a companion with humanlike appeal. Things become more interesting when they are not just pleasant, but create a certain tension, question things, and criticize. Small, specific applications help with that approach.
Improving accessibility is another reason. Like Erik Spiekerman said:“Even though I think a lot of the fonts being designed on the [Apple] Macintosh today are tasteless, I still believe it’s a great thing. You wouldn’t outlaw tape recorders just because people can record bad songs. I think it’s good that that ability to make type has been taking away from an elitist minority.” I agree that improving accessibility over breaking the defined rules that sometimes results in ugly work. The work should still have a story and a context, and care should always be given to work to make it valuable.
In our work, we should continue to embrace care. Regardless of the tools we are using, spending a lot of time with a project shows results. AI technology and bespoke do not have to be mutually exclusive. When employed in a thoughtful, ethical way in earlier stages of the process, in interactions with tools, or in outsourcing tedious tasks, AI can still be part of a caring process.
AI now seems to become synonymous with the consolidation of power, creating big monopolies and profits, and generating average results with the click of one button that is probably designed like a magic wand. Yet it has the potential to create more expressive interfaces, create friction and serve as an extension for creativity maybe truer to the human mind than most software now.
I am interested in a world of independent type designers, asking questions that were impossible to ask before, and democratizing software and tools. I imagine the antithesis of big software: small imaginative tools on Glitch and GitHub, expressive interfaces, and playful and engaging creative systems, and the power of sketching, those are the qualities that are important to me. Friction, small, playful, experimental, expressive, this is the future of typography I hope to see. That way we can solve problems together that governments or companies are not going to solve.
This thesis stands as a demonstration for a positive, collaborative approach to AI, that helps further democratize the type design practice. And “... at the end of the day, it’s not the tools, but how you use them what matters.”
“The ideal tool for me would be a perfect coding wingman. A model that understands what I want from a tool, that you could work on code together with, and that speeds up the process of creating tools.”
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“I would like to have the best of both worlds. It should feel like actual software with a timeline and interactive elements but also give you full programmatic control. ”
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“For a long time we ve been dreaming of a tool that supports us in proofing and documenting the typefaces we design.”
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“I see the need for a multilingual approach and ways for us to collaborate, especially from a scriptural and typographic perspective. We need to find ways to quickly translate our designs to reach a broader audience.”
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“Ideally, you could press one button, and all the font engineering tasks would be done for you, but you could still adjust them if needed.”
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“Doraemon’s Anywhere Door”, a pink, magic door. It can take you anywhere you want to go. You just have to think about the place you want to go, open the door, and step inside, and you will be there.
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“I know what I wish for: it's not a tool. It's an approach or a methodology on how to work. It's not a tool that I miss; it's more of a system that would allow me to be proper for once.”
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“... at the end of the day, it’s not the tools, but how you use them what matters.”