Stereo Type: First Letters “b” and “d”

After a long break it was time to update my progress on the project. Since we’re slowly coming to an end of the term (a month is left – more or less) there will be a lot to finish in very short time hence I’ll try to upload as much as possible.

So far the project is continuing with success. I finished the composition of almost all typographic terminology parts like: Bowl, Counter, Ascender, Descender, Stem, Stroke. I’m still working on the rest which are a bit more tricky.

To summarize what this sentence means I will be providing the audio files below:
Ascender 


 

Bowl


 

Counter


 

These are the terminologies used to create the letter b and d (the stem is not uploading for some reason – will add it later…)

Its mostly a process of searching the sound of shapes. As fun as it sounds, its quite challenging. Its hard to interpret two different senses into one another. But so far, on a research level, the results please me.

 

The whole project is currently on the keynote-E. All the elements are made in this keynote to have a cohesive sound for the letters and then I could transpose the whole tune to have a set of variety in the whole alphabet.

So far I have finalized the letters “b” and “d”. The rest of the letters are still under construction and will not be pleasing to hear so I will upload them later.

 

letterd-decomposition
letterd-decomposition
letterb-decomposition
letterb-decomposition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since these letters were created by exactly the same elements, making them sound different was a challenge. Which is exactly why I first focused on them. This will make it easy for other letters which will have the same or similar problem.

The solution for this was to to compose the letters as its written from left and right. While letter b starts with the ascender, letter d starts  with the bowl. Eventhough the elements are the same, the hierarchy in which they are written is different, thus the order in which we hear them is also different.

 

Sound of letter “b”


 

Sound of letter “d”


The sounds are similar yet distinct. Yet since the visuals are very similar for both letters, sounds must also be similar.

I am working on every letter in this manner and hopefully by next week all the letters will be finished.

Next update will be on coding and “making of” of the Processing.

-Ahmet.

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