Heartbeat | Side Project

I’m really into fonts made in experimental ways. Heartbeat is one I came up with in recognition of International Transgender Day of Visibility. I wanted to explore the tension between type as a static structure versus gender identity as a fluid construct.

It’s a dynamic font that measures an individual's heart rhythms and brings the heart to life externally with every single beat; every person's font is unique. While heart rate sensors are required for the full experience, this website mimics the variables that the sensors take into account in generating your individualized font.

(desktop only)

 
 

Heartbeat is made from five thousand singular dots moving together in an infinite amount of ways to form a truly personal and dynamic font.

 
 

When someone is hooked up to the heart rate sensors, the dots grow or diminish in size, increase or decrease their speeds, and change colors, all dependent on the individual person’s changing heart rate.

 
 

Most mobile devices use camera lens as a heart rate monitor. So we took this technology and created a mobile app that outputs customized messages using the voice feature.