Form and feeling: how to sink your teeth into 3D type, with experimental typographer Vincent Wagner

The world of 3D design seems to be having its time in the sun. There’s something about familiar objects taking on absolutely unfamiliar forms that’s endlessly fascinating. Leaning on ideas of abstraction, 3D allows designers to bend the rules of reality, and craft an imaginative world where anything goes. 3D type – a microcosm within this realm – has also emerged as an exciting new frontier, where the rigour and technicalities of type design can be softened by experimentations of tactility and texture. Gooey, squidgy characters can now bob and float across surfaces, and translucent, watery type can glint when it catches the light; here, rules are suspended, and experiments are governed only by the ability of form to evoke a feeling. Vienna-based experimental typographer Vincent Wagner is very familiar with the allure of 3D type. He’s turned much-loved 2D typefaces into their voluminous 3D forms, and designed characters for single covers and product launches. We spoke to Wagner to unpack the nuances of the medium, and learn how emerging designers can get a foot in the door. Wagner’s curiosity of 3D type was stoked when a commission from Manuel Rossner of Hightype Foundry led to a collision of two of his keen interests – 3D design and typography. That project, for which Wagner created a set of images using Rossner’s typeface HT Standard, led to more experimentations, until suddenly he found himself writing an email to Velvetyne Type Foundry, for a pitch to turn their 2D typeface, Pilowlava, into its 3D avatar. With the blessing of – and a bit of guidance from – Pilowlava’s designers Jérémy Landes and Anton Moglia, the typeface did see the light of day. “From then on, I kept experimenting with 3D type, always on the lookout for meaningful uses of the added third dimension,” reveals Wagner. “The fascination hasn’t faded; quite the opposite, in fact. The more time I invest in the topic, the more fascinating it becomes.” TC Pilowlava – featuring a character set with sharp, yet soft contours, pulled this way and that – now lives on Type Computer, Wagner’s new experimental type foundry, dedicated exclusively to 3D typefaces. “I was wondering whether 3D type as a medium has a sustainable future ahead of it. To find a reliable answer to this question, I think it is important to see widespread experimentation, and start a broad discussion around the topic. To facilitate both experimentation and discourse, I launched Type Computer,” he tells us. In an intention to lower the barrier of entry into the space, Wagner has given easy and free access to almost all of the typefaces in the foundry, “creating an open channel to exchange ideas and designs.”