Generative design allows the creation of a determined, but not finite, set of sign categories. Among these, letters form a sub-family of objects whose visual power will allow to easily play with the limits of legibility.

In a defined square space of 600px side, students have to generate simple geometric shapes that together form a letter: points, lines, rectangles, ellipses, thicknesses and fills. These shapes are generated by the code and some parameters are dependent on the position of the mouse. Thus, for each movement of the cursor over the character, its shape changes and the emission of its semantic value is altered. A “stable” position can exist but is not required.

This course follows the one given at the very beginning of the year by Mathieu Ehrsam on “the sign, the character and the pictogram; good, bad and ugly”. It is based on Thomas Bouville’s workshop on character design and knowledge of the structure of a letter.