Letter Blocks
2023
Letter Blocks is an experimental, typographic project exploring an iterative, experimental process which digitizes analog mediums.
It pushes a typography project past function and utilitarian use. It give letterforms a conceptual identity, rooted in process and fearless multi-media experimentation.
Analog + Digital Tools
Experimental Typography
Conceptual Functionality
To start this process, I looked at grains of salt under a microscope, which was inspired by Joe Boyd’s Nobody Notices series. I was fascinated with the way he found texture and inspiration from his intuition, and wanted to try myself. I like the idea of work with chance—not knowing what i was going to find, but trusting it would lead somewhere surprising.
I found this set of letterforms in the ridges and valleys of the salt particles, and turned them into an abstract set of letters. However, I wanted to push this further. I wanted to turn this physical project digital in an unconventional way. I had experience creating soundscapes, so i imported the raw data from each letterform into Audacity.
This audio file is the raw data in the pixels of the “Z” above
I then bent and distorted this data through a series of copy and pasting and audio experimenting. I exported these as raw data, which enabled me to open the distortions in photoshop.
I turned these distortions into abstract interpretations of letterforms, called “LETTER BLOCKS”.
Below is the full set, A-Z.