A Meditation on Type

Custom Typography, Animation
2019—2020

A Meditation on Type is an alphabet created between October 2019 and October 2020. This span of time marks a phase of personal upheaval that coincided with a period of international crisis and unrest. The series began as a way to confront the tension between competing urges to create and rest, find employment and take a break, practice design and avoid burnout, seek inspiration and do absolutely nothing. The mindful process of creating these letters satisfied all of these seemingly incompatible needs. Though each form began as a considered piece of a cohesive typeface, once the initial outline was drawn the ensuing process of filling out each shape became an extended meditative release.

As the year passed and personal triumphs overlapped with the rise of public health and political crises, both the physical construction of the concentric shapes and the digital deconstruction of each letter’s many layers continued to serve as meditative exercises that I returned to as points of stability amidst chaos. The completion of this alphabet came when the world seemed more fraught than ever. But, incredibly, this weight felt more manageable after hours and hours of drawing line after line after line.

Recognition

Society of Typographic Arts: STA 100 Judge’s Choice (Tré Seals, Vocal Type Co.)—2020