The Handmade Type Experiment

Now here is a project that takes the idea of “handmade type” very literally. Exploring the relationships between upper-case lettering and their lower-case counterparts, New York based designer/illustrator Tien-Min Liao has recorded the transitions between the letters of the alphabet using black ink and some well thought out hand-puppetry.

For her experiment, Liao painted shapes with ink on one or both hands, manipulating her gestures into both the upper-case and lower-case forms of the letters. The transition is almost seamless and a little surprising when you first encounter it. Her gifs are equally well done, with line drawn hands captivatingly showing the motion required to transform the letters forms. Thus far, Liao has created the entire 26 letter alphabet and even experimented with creating italic glyphs and some new typefaces.

For more on this project (which seems to be taking finger-spelling to the next level), and for more on Liao’s highly creative work (including some equally unique data visualization) check out Liao’s Behance page.

Here, by changing the gesture, the uppercase roman I (top left) shifts to a lowercase roman i (top right), a uppercase italic I (botton left) and a lowercase italic i (botton right.)

Via: artnau.com