Exploration

APEX - A Typeface That Plays

Company

Year

Role

Contribution

APEX is a variable font I made for my monthly music mixes. The shapes are inspired by physical piano rolls, the punched patterns that carry rhythm and sound before a single note plays. Each character is designed to stretch, compress, and break apart. Like a note that can be pitched in any direction.

Process

I designed a limited set of characters in Figma to lock in the art direction. From there, I worked with Claude Code directly on the Figma canvas to build out the full system, shaping each character's rows, gaps, arches, and spines. Once the character set was coherent, it built the font files so I could stress test them in After Effects and Cinema 4D. That process surfaced real technical decisions: how many points a shape cap needs to stay smooth in 3D, where the system breaks, how to fix it. Then I pushed further and had Claude Code generate a variable font file so I could stretch and animate it programmatically.