Amber Li


Mad Libs:
3-Axis Variable Pixel Type

Fall 2024 | 6 weeks
Team
IndividualSkills
Glyphs,  HTML/CSS, Python Mad Libs is a pixel typeface with three axes of variability, featuring a full character set, 20 emoticons, and contextual alternates that fill-in the blanks. 


A Typeface about Filling-in-the-Blanks


Mad Libs first came to life when thinking about action verbs and how we depict them through emojis - how our keyboard suggestions will replace entire words and phrases with a single symbol. This led me to create an initial set of verbs (pictured below) that turns into a ligature with a bubble and an emoji attached to it. This  



Larkspur Type

Fall 2023 | 10 weeks
Team
Individual
Skills
Glyphs A first foray into type systems. Larkspur was inspired by the Golden Type (1890) of the Klemscott Press, which was a revival in itself of Nicholas Jenson’s 15th-century type.




A Revival of an influential early designer.


William Morris was a major player in the Arts and Crafts movement, an artist, writer, textile designer, and towards the end of his life, a type designer with the founding of the Klemscott Press. The name ‘Larkspur’ comes from the floral plant, as well as being the name of one of Morris and Co.’s most popular wallpaper patterns. The Larkspur pattern, as well as scientific illustrations are used in this type specimen poster. 

This typeface is a sharper, more structured take on the Golden Type, modernized with inktraps and stylistic alternates such as the single-looped a and g.  Also included are full punctuation sets, old-style and tabular numbers, as well as two floral ligatures reminiscent of the ones found in the original printings by the press.

Riso-print specimen poster, 12x18


Lucky Type

Fall 2024 | 3 weeks
Team
Individual
Skills
Glyphs Lucky Type is an experimental, dingbat-style typeface that challenges how we interact with our keyboards and questions the purpose of readability. Vertically-set, this typeface is inspired by Chinese knotting, often used in auspicious contexts, hung outside of doorways, in cars, and around the home for good luck. Two weights available. 


The typeface is mapped to an A-Z, 0-8 setup with beginning loops in the first row of the keyboard, small connectors in the top letter row, large medallions in the middle, and tassels in the last row. This format encourages the user to build from top-down. 
Paragraph setting in Lucky becomes curtain-like. 

Supplemental typeface set in GT Maru Mega.
All typefaces available upon request.