BIC creating a universal typeface

BIC, the ballpoint pen brand, has launched a digital crowdsourcing campaign, encouraging people from all across the globe to share their personal and unique handwriting style. The goal is to create a universal typeface, which will be an epitome of emotional physical connection between people in the era of digital.

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Pic.: A screenshot from the theuniversaltypeface.com site

The experiment is rolling out on the dedicated website, which features a plethora of handwriting samples. The brand has invited people to spell 26 letters of the English alphabet. The samples can be contributed either from touch screen devices or from a desktop computers, using a computer mouse.

On completing the task, users are also asked to identify their location, age, occupation, industry as well as the hand they use to write, for accurate statistics. The submitted letters are then get overlaid and merged with the samples by others.

So far, the brand has collected over 11,700 contributions from 77 countries. The samples are analyzed and processed to develop the universal typeface, based on the features that could be most frequently spotted in the submitted entries. The experiment has been rolling out since June 6, and the final work—the font—will be unveiled in August.