Box Lingo

In an era where digital tools offer an almost endless ability and opportunity for new methods of communication there may come a time when our inherited language and letterforms be viewed as archaic for the tasks which they are applied. I thought it would be fun to explore what a world might look like if we chose to reevalutate the usefulness of our current written language and play with what language might become if we were to create it new, using modern tool sets.

Box Lingo is an animated typeface named for the boxy shapes of the characters. The characters show the viewer how to say individual phonemes using a simple set of base symbols that represent the human mouth in profile. Characters demonstrate top-of-mouth, lower jaw, throat and tongue positions. Animated elements establish emphasis, airflow and vibration.

The Box Lingo application encourages people to interact with the typeface by choosing words from a curated list to form sentences, which are then translated into Box Lingo characters. Audio can then be played to hear the phonemes that the characters represent.

This project was developed with the guidance of Sandra Maxa, Jason Gottlieb and Kiel Mutschelknaus at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

BOX LINGO

The letters are constructed from a simplified kit of parts, each depicting a phoneme in the English language. Each "box" is meant to represent the human mouth shown in profile with additional guides showing tongue position, throat width, vocal vibration and airflow.

TYPE SPECIMEN

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

THE APP

The exhibition ran for nearly a month as part of the Maryland Institute College of Art’s graphic design post-baccalaureate thesis show.

WEBSITE

A website was created for this exhibition that went deeper into the context surrounding the project. It was developed as a dictionary of things relevant to constructed and natural languages, with links to online articles for further exploration.