Collaborative line alphabet

Using a real-time collaborative canvas platform, set up an artboard for each letter of the alphabet.

Each participant should in turn contribute one straight line to each character.

When participants have drawn a part of every letter, save a copy of the alphabet before continuing.

Repeating the exercise, participants must now move/edit/resize someone else's line for each letter (but without deleting or adding any lines).

It is optional whether participants choose to fix perceived mistakes, or perhaps sabotage the alphabet. Discuss this dynamic.
- Were participants working with parallel or divergent intentions?
- What creative vision for the typeface was most dominant during the drawing process?

As a group, digitise and produce a variable font containing both states of the alphabet. Divide this work equitably.

Conceptualise and agree on what the variable axis represents, and what label should be applied to it. What names make sense for the poles of this axis, or perhaps even intermediate points?

Non-human embodied typographies

Choose a non-human animal and study its body, movement, gestures, common positions and behaviours.

Create a series of sketches representing distinct embodied gestures – a kind of typography of the body.

Consider how abstract or literal your sketched forms will be. How many forms are necessary? Try to create a cohesive set of glyphs with a consistent interpretation of the subject.

Develop your ‘alphabet’ into a specimen poster to share with the group.