Generative Typography

Active & Passive Porcess’.  
Experimental analog typefaces designed following both active and passive processes.



Typeface inspired by the Spanish pop-rock music from the 2000s, especially 'El Canto del Loco' album 'Zapatillas’ (shoes).The typeface was constructed through a passive process which involved dropping a single shoelace to the floor from about one meter's height. The shoelace was dropped about one hundred times, each time throwing it inthe exact way it had been picked up, without altering its shape. By dropping the shoelace onto the floor, different shapes started to emerge, some of them resembling letters, eventually creating the whole alphabet then used to design the multiple album covers, proving the versatility of the process. To promote the artists and the album, a type installation was created by turning the typeface into a neon installation along with an informative brochure. 



Typeface inspired by Coldaplay's recent album, 'Everyday Life'. Coldplay is a British rock band formed in 1996. Everyday Life is the result of an automatable process based on modifying an existing typeface, Helvetica. This was done by painting the lettershape with water and adding two drops of black ink. Before this dried up a single blow was done from the top of the letterface, allowing the ink to expand irregularly through the typeface. By following this exact process a whole alphabet was eventually created, which was then used to design the multiple album covers, proving the versatility of the process.




Typeface inspired by the song 'La Playa' (the beach) from the Spanish pop band. The typeface, which is linked to the song's title through the material used for its development, sand, is created through a passive process.The process consists of placing sand in the middle of a rectangular baking tray and assigning a number to each side of the tray (1-5) including the top. A dice is rolled to determine the number of times air will be blowed with a hair dryer, then the dice is rolled again to determine from which directions the air will be blowed. This process was repeated over and over again until the sand started to form different letters used for the creation of an alphabet.
© By Lucía Santana 2022. All rights reserved.
lucia.santanagarcia@gmail.com