Tag Archives: Multisensory

Immerse yourself in the emotional impact of fonts, an experience for all the senses

Join me to explore Mood 1 from the Adobe MAX immersive installation.

Put your headphones on and play this while you look at the photos*
Click here to play the sound.

How does it make you feel? What smells and flavours would you pair with this mood?

**

I first came across this weird looking type style in Rob Roy Kelly’s book of American Wood Type 1828–1900. It’s a crazy mashup of three styles: a gothic (sans serif) + tuscan (fancy bifurcated serifs) + Italienne (reverse contrast).

This is Cottonwood, designed by Barbara Lind, Joy Redick, and Kim Buker Chansler. From Adobe Originals.

These photos are from the large-scale multisensory installation I created at the last in-person Adobe MAX at the L.A. Convention Centre in Los Angeles.

Visitors were immersed in the mood of different typefaces through all of their senses. At each station they were invited to put on headphones, to smell a scent in a jar or by flipping the pages of a book, to eat a small taster and to feel a texture. Each set of stimuli was designed to bring a mood to life in the participant’s imagination. There was curiosity and intrigue as the first visitors arrived and they were soon returning with groups of friends saying “you have to try this”.

“The experience that Type Tasting designed for the Adobe Fonts booth at Adobe MAX was such a fun, intriguing way for people to explore how their reactions to fonts relate to other sensations” Dan Rhatigan, Adobe Fonts

Sound designer Rob Taliesin Owen created bespoke sounds and a bespoke scent was created by 4160 Tuesdays. The installation was produced and run with the wonderful Adobe Fonts team.

“Font ‘tasting’, it was awesome! You could smell, hear and taste the fonts”, “F!ing genius!”.

*If the link doesn’t work listen to Suite Punta Del Este by Astor Piazzolla.

“F!ing genius!” Visitors experienced the emotional impact of fonts with an immersive, multisensory installation in L.A.


I’ve been creating immersive and multisensory installations for a number of years now. They’ve been on hold during Covid but plans are now underway for the future. This is the large-scale multisensory installation I created at Adobe MAX at the L.A. Convention Centre in Los Angeles.

Visitors were immersed in the mood of different typefaces through all of their senses. At each station they were invited to put on headphones, to smell a scent in a jar or by flipping the pages of a book, to eat a small taster and to feel a texture. Each set of stimuli was designed to bring a mood to life in the participant’s imagination. There was curiosity and intrigue as the first visitors arrived and they were soon returning with groups of friends saying “you have to try this”.

“The experience that Type Tasting designed for the Adobe Fonts booth at Adobe MAX was such a fun, intriguing way for people to explore how their reactions to fonts relate to other sensations” Dan Rhatigan, Adobe Fonts

Sound designer Rob Taliesin Owen created bespoke sounds and a bespoke scent was created by 4160 Tuesdays. The installation was produced and run with the wonderful Adobe Fonts team.

“Font ‘tasting’, it was awesome! You could smell, hear and taste the fonts”

  • Type Tasting installation at Adobe MAX in Los Angeles

Fantastical Fonts with Sarah Hyndman: online live events

🔊Listen to the audio version

Not-to-be-missed interactive, funny and fantastical live events. Sarah’s on a mission to make typography exciting for everybody by inviting you to take part in games and demonstrations so you can make the discoveries for yourself.

Come along to this fun and irreverent online event with author Sarah Hyndman. Join in with games from her bestselling book Why Fonts Matter. She’ll answer as many of your questions as possible, no questions are too silly or too strange!

Ideal for beginners, students and anybody curious about reading fonts. We’re all font consumers in our everyday lives. Sarah will show you that you’re already an expert, even if you don’t realise it.

WHO’S THAT FONT?
Tuesday 14th September, 7pm to 8pm (BST)
Do fonts have personalities? Which would you date, ditch or just be friends with? What does a font reveal about your personality?

DO FONTS SMELL?
Tuesday 28th September 7pm to 8pm (BST)
What might different fonts smell like and what memories do they evoke? Can a font make your jellybean taste different? How do fonts interact with all your senses?
Bring a matching pair of jellybeans for an experiment.
£1.99 per person, only 25 tickets.
Book here

Once you’ve purchased your ticket you’ll be sent the Zoom details. Please tell your friends, let’s have some fun.

Are you ready to immerse yourself in the fantastical world of fonts?

About your host
Sarah Hyndman demystifies the amazing world of typography. She is the author of Why Fonts Matter. She is a TEDx speaker, a regular on radio (BBC Radio 4’s Word of Mouth with Michael Rosen, Saturday Live, Today.) and TV (Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch). Sarah is a multisensory typography expert and collaborates on studies with Professor Charles Spence of the University of Oxford.

Professional development typography masterclasses

Professional development typography masterclasses—not just for designers!

Invest in the professional development of your company with effective Zoom workshops that are engaging and fun with plenty of “aha!” moments.

Typography is the voice of your brand and it’s important for everybody in a company to understand some basics, not just graphic designers.

This is a series of Zoom masterclasses hosted by author, researcher and Type Tasting founder Sarah Hyndman. Sarah’s an expert in making learning fun and is on a mission to make typography exciting for everybody. Each masterclass focuses on an experiential area of typography with enlightening activities, engaging demonstrations and useful how-to guides. These are currently available as live Zoom sessions, which means you can join a masterclass from anywhere in the world.

Ideal for departments across the whole company, not just designers
These are interesting, inspiring and fun workshops with clear and empowering takeaways for people from all roles in a company. They’re ideal as a team-building session or to reinforce the importance of coherent use of language and fonts for your brand.

You can arrange a private session for your group or organisation, or come along as an individual to a public event. Private sessions are modified to suit the participants.

“Such a fun, interesting and inspiring workshop with clear and empowering takeaways. It reinforced the importance of coherent presentation of our brand for colleagues from all parts of our company, in all types of roles.” Nicky Borowiec, Springer Nature

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Typographic synaesthesia experience session

Typographic synaesthesia experience session

A fantastical multisensory online event designed to stimulate all your senses

As featured in Design Week’s Picks of the Month.

Take part in a fun session with games and find out about some of Sarah’s research as you discover first-hand how the appearance of the words you read interacts with all of your senses.

Suitable for all, no experience needed and you can join this virtual session from anywhere in the world.

This is not just a font, it’s also an idea, a smell, a song, a memory, a feeling, a personality, a warning, a taste…

Discover for yourself how the different shapes and styles of the typefaces that you read every day trigger responses in your brain that link to all of your senses.

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Introduction to multisensory typography

LUNCH & LEARN / BREAKFAST

Introduction to multisensory typography

Learn the science of designing for all the senses to make your branding more memorable

A multisensory discovery session designed to stimulate all your senses. Ideal for designers and students of all levels who want to learn more about the science of communicating more effectively by harnessing all the senses.

As featured in Design Week’s Picks of the Month

Learn how typography interacts with all your senses and how it can even alter what you experience. Sarah will talk about some of her research and you’ll take part in multisensory demonstrations.

Multisensory

This is not just a font, it’s also an idea, a smell, a song, a memory, a feeling, a personality, a warning, a taste…

Continue reading →

Experience the emotional impact of type: Mood at MAX multisensory installation

Type Tasting installation at Adobe MAX in Los Angeles

Type Tasting created a large-scale multisensory installation for Adobe Fonts at the Adobe MAX conference in Los Angeles from 2nd to 6th November 2019.

“F*!*ing genius!”

Visitors were immersed in the mood of different typefaces through all of their senses. At each station they were invited to put on headphones, to smell a scent in a jar or by flipping the pages of a book, to eat a small taster and to feel a texture. Each set of stimuli was designed to bring a mood to life in the participant’s imagination. There was curiosity and intrigue as the first visitors arrived and they were soon returning with groups of friends saying “you have to try this”.

This is a multisensory installation featuring a selection of booths designed for participants to experience the emotional impact of type. Each booth immerses you in the mood of a typeface with sound, smell, texture and taste.

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How designing for all the senses has more impact on mood

We absorb information through all of our senses simultaneously. This speeds up our ability to judge situations and react quickly and is fundamental to our ability to recognise signals and communicate. This played a vital role in human survival when our ancestors needed to respond to danger quickly, often relying on sound or smell when it was dark and a large proportion of our genes are still devoted to detecting odours.

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Experience ‘Pride, Prejudice & Perceptions’ at the British Academy


Pride, Prejudice & Perceptions is an interactive sensory exploration of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, created by AVM Curiosities & Type Tasting for the British Academy’s Literature Week.

Taking inspiration from the typography found in three editions of this classic novel, Pride, Prejudice & Perceptions uses type, sound, sight and scent to serve one story three ways.

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