HOW TO
[NOT]
DESIGN A
TYPEFACE
Creating conditions/systems tosee/generate/have fun with type design.
"How to Not Design a Typeface" helps establish simple, intuitive constraints to guide creative exploration—without getting stuck on technicalities like x-heights and baselines. Instead, the focus is on how emergent forms can arise through playful experimentation. Whether you're a designer looking to challenge creative systems or just want to have fun pushing typographic boundaries, this space is for you.
TAPEFACE
Every great typeface begins with play:)
What is Tapeface?
Tapeface is not your typical typeface. It’s a collective, an experiment, and a playful disruption of design authorship. Created during a workshop by 26 individuals—each with a different color of tape—Tapeface challenges the idea that a typeface must come from a single designer’s grid.The process is simple, yet unpredictable: Each participant is given a sheet with one alphabet and one color of tape. Every 30 seconds, the sheet is passed to the next person, allowing each individual to contribute to every letter. Layer by layer, shape by shape, the forms evolve—sometimes harmonizing, often colliding—until the final letterforms are born.
Outcome?
The result is a typeface that resists uniformity, embraces spontaneity, and speaks with many voices at once. Tapeface is a visual conversation—sometimes awkward, sometimes beautiful, always alive.But Tapeface is more than just the letters on the page. It’s a challenge to the long-standing tradition of solitary authorship in type design. It poses a question: What happens when no one owns a typeface? The answer lies in the pages ahead—where you’ll see how 26 distinct minds, governed by a few simple rules, created one unified yet unruly outcome.
GIVE BACK
Participants were then invited to engage more deeply with the typeface they had collectively created by using it as the foundation for a series of simple, playful posters. This next phase encouraged them to explore the expressive potential of the typeface—testing its versatility, personality, and coherence across different visual compositions. Through this hands-on exercise, the abstract rules and forms developed earlier were brought to life in tangible, communicative designs, allowing each contributor to leave a personal imprint while still working within the shared visual language.