New?Type?Typograpy?

Research, Experiment
Individual project
2026

Axis Accumulation: Rethinking Letterform Q. How can a letter be read when it is no longer bound to a flat surface?Web-tool1. Historical Conditions of Written FormThis project uses four historical conditions of writing as points of reference: inscription, manuscript, movable type, and digital media. Each condition shaped letters through a different relation between material, tool, body, and surface. In inscription, letters were carved into resistant surfaces such as stone or clay, gaining depth, shadow, and physical volume. In manuscript culture, letters were formed through the movement of the hand across softer surfaces such as papyrus, parchment, and paper. With movable type and print, letters became reproducible impressions, separated from handwriting and standardized through mechanical systems. In digital media, letters are no longer tied to a single surface, but circulate through screens, layers, scrolling, and interaction.

Rather than presenting a linear history of writing, this section establishes the conditions that led to the experiment: if written forms have always been shaped by their media, tools, and bodily actions, how might letters be reconstructed within the spatial and interactive environment of the digital
Trying to see new
As shown in a–d above, letters have developed through four main methods. They began with the most primitive methods, such as drawing on the ground with tools or carving into walls, and gradually became more universal and accessible, allowing anyone to handle letters. Today, letters exist within the digital realm. As shown in the diagram below (Figure 5), we have continued the conventional role of letters as flattened forms into the digital environment without much questioning. This research asks about a new structure of letters within the infinite environment of the digital, which is fundamentally different from previous human lives and tools. When the environment changes, how can we look at letters in a new way?





2. The Need for a New Structurea. From Physical Media to Digital Space
For thousands of years, letters have existed on physical media. As mentioned earlier, letters on stone, parchment, and paper have mainly taken the form of two-dimensional shapes. The digital age began in earnest with the spread of personal computers in the 1960s. Since then, the digital environment, which once existed mainly within individual computers or devices, has expanded through the development of the internet into a space that can be connected from anywhere in the world.

Unlike physical recording media, digital media are not limited by the boundaries of a fixed surface. If printed text has a linear structure arranged on a single plane (Figure 6-1), digital text forms a non-linear and expandable space (Figure 6-2) through scrolling, hyperlinks, overlapping windows, animation, and interface transitions. This space is not simply a widely extended flat surface, but is closer to a multidimensional structure that contains different layers and depths at the same time. Therefore, in the digital environment, text can be understood not as something that remains in a fixed position, but as something that is continuously rearranged and reconstructed through the flow of time and user interaction.
b. Beyond the Plane
Therefore, in this experiment, I no longer viewed letters only as flat forms, but attempted to bring the multidimensional spatiality of digital media into the structure of the letterform. At the same time, I took the materiality and sense of depth from the Inscription Era as a point of reference, approaching letters again as three-dimensional structures. What is important here is not simply making letters appear three-dimensional, but asking again through what structural principles a letter can be formed. With the basic form of the letter at the center, how might its shape change when it is stacked and expanded along the x, y, and z axes through user intervention? This experiment is an attempt to see letters not as fixed two-dimensional outlines, but as structures that can be accumulated and reconstructed within space.



3. Axis accumulation experimenta. 1st approach : Line, Flat, Check pattern
These experiments were created as web-based works using JavaScript. In the first experiment, I explored different ways of accumulating letters. In Figure 8-1, the letters were converted into lines and then accumulated only along the x-axis based on the central axis. Figure 8-2 shows an experiment in which 2D letters were accumulated within a 3D screen, while Figure 8-3 adds patterns to the 3D structure. Through these experiments, I tested various ways of accumulating letters and found the expectation that, for legibility and recognition, a 3D letterform that maintains its basic shape may be more stable.

b. 2nd approach : Ascii
In the second experiment, I applied the Ascii syntax in Three.js to 3D text. The letters were expressed through different characters depending on their shadows and colors, introducing a new approach that asks what it would mean if a 3D letter were made up of other letters. This experiment shows the possibility that a single letter does not have to exist as one fixed form, but can be reconstructed through a combination of smaller characters.In the second experiment, I applied the Ascii syntax in Three.js to 3D text. The letters were expressed through different characters depending on their shadows and colors, introducing a new approach that asks what it would mean if a 3D letter were made up of other letters. This experiment shows the possibility that a single letter does not have to exist as one fixed form, but can be reconstructed through a combination of smaller characters.
c. 3rd approach : 3D
From the third experiment, I began working more directly with 3D letters. Based on the center of the letter, the user can stack the letter along the x, y, and z axes by dragging and dropping with the mouse. I replaced the conventional way of distinguishing letters through weight with axis accumulation, and through this, I attempted to approach letters from a new structural perspective. As the letter accumulates, it seemed necessary to define a rule for how far it can still be recognized as the letter T, and at what point it begins to move into a graphic form (Figure 10-2). In this process, the characteristics of each letter naturally differed depending on its category. A symmetrical letter like T, as shown in Figure 10-1, caused relatively fewer problems in terms of legibility when accumulated from the center. On the other hand, asymmetrical letters such as C, a, and m tended to accumulate more strongly in one direction (Figure 10-3). Additional experiments were conducted with serif fonts, thickness, and wireframe structures (Figure 10-4~6), and I also tested how the accumulated forms appear within a sentence (Figure 10-7).



d. Test website







4. From Screen to PrintIn the exhibition, visitors were invited to directly stack and construct letters, experiencing how letterforms can be spatially formed within a digital environment. The results created through this process were printed using a thermal printer. Because a thermal printer has a low resolution, the detailed depth and three-dimensionality of the structures formed in the digital space are not fully preserved. However, this point was important. At the moment of printing, the letters accumulated and reconstructed in digital space are transferred back onto a conventional two-dimensional surface, and the new structure is translated again through an existing method of recording. This process was not simply a matter of technical limitation, but became an experiment that reveals what is preserved and what disappears when letters generated through a new pathway re-enter a two-dimensional system of recording.



5.PosibilityThis research is meaningful not because it proposes new letterforms, but because it shifts the conditions through which letters are constructed, read, and recorded. Until now, letters have mainly been understood within a system centered on flat outlines and legibility, but the digital environment asks us to reconsider these assumptions. In this research, letters were explored as structures that accumulate and are reconstructed along the x, y, and z axes. Through this process, legibility was also revealed not as a fixed essence, but as a condition that changes depending on structure, direction, and density. Here, the change in structure alters letterform perception itself, allowing letters to be seen not as final visual shapes, but as recognizable structural principles. In particular, the introduction of the z-axis allows letters to be perceived not as signs on a flat surface, but as spatial objects with depth and direction. The various forms generated under the same rule also show that letters are not fixed shapes, but can be formed through changing conditions.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_hieroglyphs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offset_printing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_messaging