Lieven van Speybroeck

Piet Zwart Institute - Rotterdam

Master Media Design and Communication
Film: http://vimeo.com/45743957

Typography is well suited to convey text, but it lacks the means of communicating the context in which a text is produced. How to communicate the complex circumstances that influence the writer; moods and emotions, a noisy environment? It’s a limitation that has been pinpointed before, but Lieven van Speybroeck has tackled the problem with his graduation project. He designed a piano-like machine, the keyboard of which not only registers the letter that’s being typed, but also the force with which it is — translating this in the size of the printed letter. Surrounding noises are taken into account, and influence the opacity of the text; foot paddles can either increase or decrease the weight of the font. From the end result, one can deduce with how much passion, anger, love a text is written — or, perhaps, with how little interest.