Jarin Moriguchi
NotDef
Designing a letterform can feel like creating a scientific specimen, a carefully studied example whose makeup can be crafted and sampled for use in other characters. The process of designing a typeface is a balance between intuition, gesture, and math. It can eventually produce an abomination, something functional and beautiful, or perhaps more interestingly, something in between.
NotDef is a collection of typefaces conceived from a formal prompt (gradients, Fraktur terminals, ultra-heavy type, slender counters) and then developed through a combination of those formal prompts and each typeface’s cultural references and connotations (corporate name tags, Hōkūleʻa, non-humanoid aliens, Urag gro-Shub the Arcanaeum librarian from Skyrim). Those references and connotations are used to build a world within which each typeface exists. The type’s design then defines and expands upon the rules and characteristics of that world, emulating the way we can deduce the qualities of a genus by studying the qualities of its individual members.
This project investigates the ways in which type design might balance legibility and surprise to create ambiance, which can be modified by changing contexts, the creation of imagined worlds, and shifts in materiality. Drawn letterforms demonstrate the execution of a range of expression, expanding upon the elicited feelings that are possible through careful attention to gesture and form.
