Leah Maldonado

Type Design Identity Systems Editorial Design Copy Writing Fashion

Leah Maldonado is an analytical and experimental designer skilled in type design, iterative process, and research, looking to understand the impacts of visual language through conceptual ideas existing in the medium of letterforms.

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  • GlyphWorld Typeface
    GlyphWorld is a free typeface set in a mythical alternate font-world made of nine landscapes: Forest, Meadow, Flower, Mountain, Airland, Animal Soul, Glacier, Desert, and Wasteland. The project pushes the boundaries of what a typeface can be by using the medium of letterforms to reflect an emotional connection to our environment.

  • GlyphWorld Exhibit
    The GlyphWorld typeface is envisioned in real space as an exhibit in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. In the exhibit, a sculpture garden shows analogous textures and items that correspond directly with the fonts, a "map" on the wall helps viewers see these analogies and an oversized essay gives a glimpse into the thinking behind the project.

  • More Type Design
    Carmelo, Gaag, and Gorpite are the other typefaces Leah has made. Carmelo is a slime-like serif that is based on her perception of herself as an older woman. Gaag is about the absurd. Leah observed what makes humans awkward and tried to translate that into letterforms. Gorpite is a sharp serif based on the shape of graphite.

  • Clickbait Mag: Deep Fakes Issue
    Click Bait is an experimental publication that explores what results when modern, digital interfaces are printed out and interjected into real, physical space. The first issue explores the idea of DeepFakes, which are techniques for human image synthesis based on artificial intelligence. Within ClickBait Issue 1, the realm of DeepFakes are investigated through the content; i.e. the artificial personality of Lil Miquela, the plasticity of pixels, and the Looksmaxxing culture of incels.

  • Alter Ego
    Alter Ego is a collection of Leah's writing and her closest friend, Raven's, photography. They worked independently, but the short stories and the photos Raven captured felt like they co-existed the way their friendship did. While the two bodies of work are completely unrelated in a multitude of ways there is also something about them that makes them work perfectly together.

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