Ana Kuster • Levels

CHALLENGE

Design an original typeface using a modular "building block" system to keep all the alphanumeric characters visually consistent with each other.

Concept & Sketches

The task involved creating a display-style typeface of any kind, as long as it used a modular design. I got to work sketching out a bunch of different ideas for themes and styles, and I even pushed most of them to a vector art phase just to see how they would start to look.

The one I eventually chose to move forward with was "Levels," not only because I was personally interested in that old arcade aesthetic, but also because it presented the simplest and most straightforward setup for how the modular pieces could create letterforms.

Legibility & Color Tests

I continued to make small modifications to each character to make them more and more readable and cohesive. To test the legibility, I wrote out some phrases in different orientations. I was also tweaking the color palette until the very last revision, eventually arriving at a system that could incorporate several different coloring styles for my typeface.