HEX builds a sound wave typography system for Maple’s voice AI research

When HEX started working on Maple’s identity, they hit a familiar creative dilemma. The voice AI platform needed to feel cutting-edge and technical – after all, they’re building sophisticated phone agents for restaurants. But their primary audience? Local restaurant owners who often approach AI with healthy scepticism, if not outright wariness. Creative Director & Founder Ayush Soni and his team at the experimental studio found themselves pulling back from their most adventurous typographic explorations. The cybernetic food art and ASCII typography hints were intriguing, but perhaps too cold for people who just wanted their phones answered efficiently. Then Maple proposed something that made perfect sense: why not create a sub-brand for their research department, where they could let that experimental energy run free? “Create the most experimental system you can using typography as a basis and tie it subtly to voice and sound,” became the brief for what would become Maple’s research division identity. Suddenly, HEX had permission to dive headfirst into that typographic rabbit hole they’d been eyeing. The concept emerged from thinking about voice as rhythm, frequency and intent. Rather than conventional sound wave visualisations, Soni’s team built something more foundational: ASCII art where individual letters become the raw building blocks of sound itself. Using Cavalry’s procedural animation capabilities, they developed a system where characters animate based on data patterns derived from how voice actually behaves – waves colliding, separating, merging in endless, mesmerising loops. The technical execution required balancing fluid motion with that essential technical feel. “We kept the actual ASCII typography as Alte Haas Grotesk for its ability to look good while condensed down and spaced out as needed,” Soni explains, noting how different wavelengths demanded the typeface adapt across various spacings and condensations. Building a custom node-based system in Cavalry gave them fine-grained control over timing and randomness while maintaining visual consistency.