Handmade Type by Tien Min Liao

This creative experiment by artist Tien-Min Liao explores typography and its shapes from a very uncommon and fascinating angle.

In this experiment, I drew shapes with ink on one or both of my hands, manipulating my gestures into the corresponding shape to signify an upper-case letter. Then, using the same shape on my hands, I manipulated my gesture or changed the perspective through which the shape is viewed in orderto transform the upper-case letter to a lower-case of the same letter. Removingor redrawing the darkened shape on my hands is not allowed in the experiment. The only way to make the model transform from an upper-case to a lower-case (orvice versa) is changing the gestures or the perspectives. I created 26 sets of these inked shapes and drew them on my hands.Each set is made to create both an upper-case and a lower-case letter, such as A and a. I also created some italic letters, hand-writing letters and some new typefaces with the same shapes.

watch the video