Fluid Identity

TypeCon, the annual convention of the American Society of Typographic Aficionados, is one of the largest and most significant events in the international design calendar. For its 2016 conference in Seattle, MuirMcNeil was invited to design the visual identity.

In response to the title of the event, Resound, our solution was to produce a modular visual system that would have both impact and coherence across a wide range of applications. Working with a deliberately restricted palette of typographic forms and colours, we developed an extensive series of visual hierarchies that varied as the result of differences in textual content. In individual applications, separate levels of information were emphasized or diminished as required within predefined constraints.

The visual system was generated from a set of parametric typefaces and corresponding background panels developed specifically for the project. The MuirMcNeil TwoPoint and TwoPlus type systems consist of 76 base fonts that can be manipulated in layers to provide over 5,500 possible typographic configurations that are unpredictable and remarkably variegated in their appearance.

The result of their implementation for TypeCon 2016 was a flexible but instantly recognisable identity whose bright colours, clean geometries and ambiguous relationships of form and counterform playfully engaged with notions of legibility and taste while also reflecting on the modular foundations of traditional and contemporary typographic form-giving.

Poster Printed offset litho in black and neon green 89x60cm

Very few copies remaining in our shop

Programme. Printed offset litho in black and neon green. 254x110mm.

Desktop clock using 66 typefaces from MuirMcNeil’s TwoPoint and TwoPlus type systems. In two precisely registered layers, fonts for time, date, and background panels are programmed to change randomly every minute. With layer colours reversing for am and pm, this results in 8,712 possible overlay combinations.

Conference presentation title frames at the Amazon Doppler Tower, Seattle WA

Intermission video.
The timing of frame motion for text elements, foreground and background panels is programmed in increments proportionate to the dot pitch for each font size used. As a result, the animation is a product of the text content itself.

View on Vimeo

Desktop and lock screen

Conference gobo

Conference goodies: delegate and volunteer T-shirts, tote bag, postcards, stickers and badges

Process