CHOREO

Writing
as
dancing
Design Concept

Concept

CHOREO is a variable display typeface designed by Dan Luo.




It was initially inspired by a cover of Jugend magazine, where the title's six letters are perfectly in tune with the scene — two girls hold their hands and dance by the water on tiptoes with their white dresses billowing around. This set me thinking about creating a typeface that expresses dancing in writing.

Though using Jugend magazine as a starting point, the design gradually departed from it. Each letter was drawn with only one line without exception and became more expressive by flanking the letters’ arms outwards and allowing intersection within one stroke.

While maintaining the sharp contrast between thick and thin strokes, the design is closer to script typefaces by capturing the speed and habits of handwriting. Readability was largely improved, since in Jugend magazine’s six letters, the letter E can only be read as C without the context.







The letters’ bubble-like teardrop terminals were inspired by dance notations, especially by Beauchamp-Feuillet notation and Valerie Sutton’s DanceWriting, which combine music notes and more expressive graphic symbols to represent body movements.

Beauchamp-Feuillet notation is a system of dance notation used in Baroque dance. It shows the roles of the dancer or dancers, the tract they were to follow, and the steps to perform in relation to music. It focuses on footwork from a bird's-eye view. Each curvy line with a dot and a dash represents a step.







Sutton's DanceWriting is a way to read and write any kind of dance movement. A stick figure drawing is written on a five-lined staff. Each line of the staff represents a specific level (from bottom to top, foot level, knee level, hip level, shoulder level, and head level). When the figures bends its knee or jumps in the air, it is lowered or raised accordingly on the staff.




Head line
Shoulder line
Hip line
Knee line
Foot line

V

Head line
Shoulder line
Hip line
Knee line
Foot line

K

Head line
Shoulder line
Hip line
Knee line
Foot line
Head line
Shoulder line
Hip line
Knee line
Foot line

V

Head line
Shoulder line
Hip line
Knee line
Foot line
Head line
Shoulder line
Hip line
Knee line
Foot line

K

Typeface

A
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
,
.
!
?
'
"
‘’
“”
-
TypeTester

Tester

0

100

30 px

600 px

50%

200%

Letters can breathe.

0

100

30 px

600 px

50%

200%

Contact

Choreo is a display typeface best used at large sizes and is highly suitable for animation and use on the web. Right now it is uppercase only and interpolates between two styles. Lowercase letters, special glyphs, and more variation axes are in process and will be added to the website soon.

Feel free to email me if you want to test or use Choreo!