Lately Synoptic Office has been exploring the physical space of letter forms, not as they appear on paper, but as they might look if they were mountains, for example. That's essentially what they've done with their latest project, "Alphabet Topography," a landscape of laser-cut letter forms whose height is determined by how frequently it's used in our lexicon. When viewed altogether this new typeface "maps the rhythmic ebb and flow of the English language." You can see that E is used a ton whereas P, not so much.
Prior to this they created "Swell," another experiment with the physicality of language. It's based on the same idea of height in accordance to frequency, but in this case it's represented by black tape on a wall that maps out "a complete digital open typeface with letterforms reminiscent of the screen." It sounds abstract when you try to describe it, but Caspar Lam and YuJune Park, the founders of Synoptic Office, have the ability to visualize high-concept ideas in an open and expressive way.
Posted by Rachel Briggs
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