We celebrated the Webby People's Voice awards by literally celebrating the uniqueness of people’s voices. By combining creative technology, design and typography, we created ‘TypeVoice’; the first online font shop that allows users to generate their own customized typeface by using their voice. People could then share personalized GIFs or even download the typeface.

TypeVoice is essentially a web application that leverages the best that Chrome and Firefox has to offer. It analyzes the live inputs of audio data from your devices microphone to manipulate custom made typefaces in real time. Using volume, pitch, and other audio parameters we created algorithms that animated each letter/character. Because TypeVoice uses different parameters, it generated thousands of unique typefaces.

Yell, laugh, and whistle into TypeVoice and you’ll find yourself surprised. Under the hood of this application we have Greensock animation library, javascript, and lots of math with SVG data.

We launched the TypeVoice site one week before the People's Voice nominees were announced to create excitement and awareness. The Webby awards used webbyawards.com, netted by the Webbys emails and social following to launch TypeVoice.

Design, technology and creative partners such as FastCompany, Digiday, FWA and Creativity helped launch and drive our audience to visit to the site.

We generated PR within digital, design and creative industries, which also helped drive people to the site. People could share personalized moving GIFs of their typefaces, which helped generate more awareness through multiple social channels. Giphy also helped by promoting TypeVoice.

Objective#1

Though not solely responsible for the increase of votes, Typevoice helped drive more people than ever before to vote in the Webbys People's Voice Awards. Typevoice saw 17k visits in the week leading up to the Peoples Voice Nominations. Fast Company, Digiday, FWA, Type Directors Club and Creativity were amongst some of the press and publications championing TypeVoice.

Objective#2

TypeVoice successfully embraced creative technology and design through real time generative typography. TypeVoice also gave the user a choice of two different outputs:

Output 1: Users could create and share animated GIFs of their custom generated typeface. 10,960 unique GIFs/typefaces were created and shared. GIF creation platform Giphy even promoted TypeVoice.

Output 2: The user could download the typeface in vector form that designers could use to make their own custom art/design.

We wanted to engage digital, design and creative communities in turn increasing traffic/votes for Webbys People's Voice Awards.

Audience: Student, amateur and professionals digital, creative and design communities.

We spoke to an extensive network within our target audience, the design communities and we found they responded to experiences that explored a variety of creative formats that they work with every day, in this case we focused on typography.

Our research into compelling experience design found that users were more likely to share an experience if it was truly unique to them. In order to capitalize on this we made the concept highly personalized. This created an output that was truly unique, shareable and even something they could use.

Platform: We created design lead platform that celebrated typography using a new creative technology in an intuitive user experience.

Situation:

The Webby Awards celebrates the best of the Internet. The People’s Voice Awards were created to open voting to the public. In 2016 the Webby Awards turned 20 years old and partnered with leading digital, design and creative agencies to celebrate innovation across the Internet.

Brief:

Create awareness for the Webby’s People’s Voice Awards by celebrating the people who vote, specifically within the digital and design communities.

Objectives:

Objective#1:

Help drive more people to vote for projects nominated for a Webbys People’s Voice Award.

Objective#2:

Create a campaign that celebrates and uses both creative technology and design and encourages that community to share assets that drive more people to the People’s Voice Awards.