A Digital Remake
a Master Degree Thesis in visual communication design @ Politecnico di Milano, an open source project, a typographic exploration and experimentation.
A Python script for generating illuminated letters developed for Nodebox 1.8.2
In remaking and translating analogic elements in digital ones its necessary not to translate all the graphic elements and the mere appearence of these object, but it is necessary to transalte in digital and computational language the process.
The project is about a digital reconstruction of the traditional analogic process for drawing ‘illuminated natural letters,’ in the way Edward Johnston explained in 1906 in the twelveth section of his masterpiece, Writing & Illuminating & Lettering.
Illuminated letters are, probably, the only one element, or one of the few, that typographic technologies couldn’t transport in every typographic age - expecially in the modern age of printing - being declininated in anemic way.
Johnston defines three kind of categories for illuminated letters, in a modern and Hegelian way, not just copying an old model, but going deeper and determing the drawing process.
Johnston’s drawing process for illuminated letters is divided into four part:
- the design of the capital letter
- the design of the background
- the decoration of the letter
- a final box
Analyzing his method I try to translate it into a new computational process, due to the cause that the artistic penmanship can be tranlated into programming and computational capabilities.
The new background is created with the random() command, the letter decoration is produced with the Cornu library, the Cornu library adds Raph Levien’s elegant cornu curves to NodeBox. Cornu curves are a different approach to curves than Bezier paths, generally requiring less points, no control handles, providing more elegant forms, and looking kinda “spiraling.”
The amount of variable in this script can easily change the appearence of the letters, keeping the process true to the original but also contemporary and digital at all.
- Download the open source code . zip (6 KB) for Nodebox 1.8.2
- Download the English poster guide . pdf (7.99 MB)
- Download the Italian poster guide . pdf (7.85 MB)
- Download the The complete project research . pdf (9.08 MB) only in Italian
Thank you
Andren