Molecular Typography Laboratory
Kobi Franco
The Molecular Typography Laboratory is a speculative research project that explores experimental typography along the axes of function versus aesthetics and content versus form. It includes a series of tests that examine the use of molecular typography — a system of “games” for which I determine the rules, set the game board and decide on the players. The tests present the results of each game.
I first encountered the combination “molecular typography” while randomly surfing the Internet. The search led to a short video titled Understanding Molecular Typography, which documented a lecture by the American designer and artist Woody Leslie. Leslie surveyed a book by this name published in 1992, which he attributed to the philologist and scholar H.F. Henderson. Henderson’s book pursues a scholarly argument dating back to the mid-20th century, according to which the Latin alphabet is composed of atomic units, so that each sign is composed of a combination of several atoms. Henderson identified seven such atoms, while assuming that future research in other languages would yield additional atoms or new insights.
The “study” and the “book” were both revealed to be an artistic project, a figment of Leslie’s imagination. Nevertheless, I became enchanted with the speculative process of thinking about a Hebrew alphabet composed of similar yet different “atoms.” I decided to embark on a journey — an experimental, pseudo-scientific study, based on the assumption that the Hebrew letters indeed had a molecular structure. I sought to examine how this assumption could be applied to the Hebrew alphabet, to Hebrew words and to the Hebrew language. I conducted more than 150 different tests, which crystalized over time into 11 main themes: foundations, language, gender, formula, weight, 3D, gravitation, generative research, color, word play, type and image.
The rhizomatic character of the study, which branched out as it expanded from one test to the next, enabled me to leap from one theme to another, employing a strategy that could continue operating as long as I was interested in pursuing it.
Kobi Franco is a Tel Aviv-based designer, researcher, curator, and the Head of the Master's in Design Program at Shenkar College in Tel Aviv. He owns a leading studio specializing in design for culture and art. Franco has received numerous awards, including Typographic Excellence from New York's Type Directors Club, and his work has been widely exhibited in Israel and internationally.
