The forms of artificial reading
Look: We have to talk about AI.
Shaping new languages of expression with AI.
In Human Types, Sina Otto, Creative Type Director at Monotype, experiments with AI and typography, revealing its potential to expand possibilities, while stressing the irreplaceable value of human input.
Otto’s work emphasizes the human essence — intuition, creativity, and imperfection — versus AI’s consistency and mimicry. Otto highlights how AI tools, while aiding creativity, often lack emotional depth and spontaneity. By looking at AI as an echo or ripple, she concludes that human creativity drives innovation, while AI amplifies and transforms it, always dependent on human intent and emotion.
Words: Monotype
How did your creative life begin?
I was born into a creative environment. My grandfather had a deep love for typography and 3D photography and my father inherited his creativity. As a graphic designer and artist, my father had a studio where I would often retreat to play with all the materials. My mother is also very fond of art and crafts. Her father showed his creativity as a carpenter and musician. I studied classical music but never wanted to pursue anything other than graphic design professionally. By the time I finished school, I took on a newly introduced apprenticeship as a media designer at an agency in Frankfurt where we were pioneers in the field. I could work immediately on real projects. This hands-on experience with real projects inspired me to further my studies in communication design in Mainz and at the University of Plymouth in Exeter.
What is your approach to design?
First, I need to know or evaluate what should be communicated. Research can be helpful, and then intuition comes into play. I work (subconsciously) against trends quite often. A good piece of art or design must be catchy in a way: fun, surprising, or just supporting other elements silently. I like to combine handcrafting with digital tools, or admire work where that’s the case — sometimes you don’t even notice it at first. I’d like to create more this way. I’m a big fan of fusion in different fields.
“If you are into type, there’s just one way: deeper. No way out.” Sina Otto
How did you find your way to type?
As a teenager, I was into graffiti and music lettering. When becoming a media designer and at vocational school, I typeset catalogues and flyers and learnt micro typography. One of my responsibilities at the agency was to print fonts with all their styles on single pages, and I was amazed how many folders they filled; most were Linotypes. In England, my focus was on type, which paved my further path, in branding, editorial design, and art direction. I also studied type design with Dutch type designer Lucas de Groot. If you are into type, there’s just one way: deeper. No way out.
How do you see AI playing a role in your work?
In my daily work AI seems to play a subordinate role. AI is often invisible, unless you’re working explicitly with AI software. When searching for fonts in our Monotype Fonts library, AI works in the background to make recommendations that are very helpful. Nevertheless, I need to know what I’m looking for, to have a direction and rate the results. I also support the AI teams at Monotype by evaluating new developments which I enjoy. When exploring the topic of Human Types, I experimented with Midjourney and Adobe Firefly. I also joined a workshop where we worked with a model that produces letters as images based on prompts that were then vectorized and combined into a font file. I’m following the developments elsewhere, too.
Image:
Making the human eye connection with AI.
Image:
I am creative, I am human by Sina Otto + AI.
What did you create as a response to the Human Types brief?
I created something that AI can’t generate, can just alienate, polish. The form is also completely illegible to machines but readable by humans. The visual has different layers and multiple interpretations are possible. I mainly looked at where AI stands in relation to humans, or what we (still) perceive as human. I started with the idea of AI as an echo: AI can reflect and amplify our input, replicating it in various ways, but it’s always a reflection, never the origin. The echo (AI) depends entirely on the initial sound (human input) in order to exist at all.
My approach with the wording “I am…I am human.” set like an echo was to define the human essence. It presents phrases that AI would never generate on its own. It is powerful, encourages self-confidence by being framed in the present tense and as a personal statement. It’s almost like a prayer. Visually I included an alternative that is very close to echo: a ripple. It conveys the spreading effect of an initial impulse, evoking how ideas and feelings can extend outward. It also illustrates how the machine transforms the given input. What arises is something “bigger” than the initial input. Sometimes the original idea is not even clear anymore; it spreads after an impulse, like a stone thrown in water. Symbolically, the brain and heart visuals reflect the duality of emotion and reason. So, in this sense, humans bring the original essence, while AI enhances, amplifies, or transforms it, yet remains a step removed from the source of human intention and feeling.
“This process meant a lot to me. In learning about AI, I also became so very aware of my humanness.” Sina Otto
Image:
Human hand made lettering by Sina Otto.
Video:
Evolving the symbolic form towards a heartfelt connection.
What did the work mean to you?
This process meant a lot to me. In learning about AI, I also became so very aware of my humanness. I experienced a host of emotions throughout the project: enthusiasm about the topic, struggles of not having an idea, feelings of failure, to connecting with other people, experimenting, getting into a flow, being happy, being very critical, and finally feeling relieved and very thankful in the end that I got the chance and time to work on it.
How do you see humans and AI working together?
First of all, it’s humans who are training AI-models to become like us, or the best version of ourselves — whatever that means. Perhaps that’s it: we are trying to create perfectly working machines. Humanness is the imperfection. Now we are starting to train AI to be imperfect, mainly in artistic fields. We can use the mistakes (or surprises) that AI generates, along with our own, to create something unique.
AI delivers and we make choices. We still need to know what a good choice is and how to curate. We need education, experience and to be in touch with others and ourselves – more than ever.
What’s particularly interesting are the variations AI provides, especially those we can choose from during the process to continue shaping the work. In a sense, we are co-modeling.
In 1999, David Bowie spoke about the delicate power of the internet, “The interplay between the user and the provider will be so in sympatico… I think the potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad, is unimaginable.” We are at the beginning of another new era with AI, and we can’t ignore the downsides. A big downside is energy consumption. We must find and build more green solutions.
If we do it right, and avoid fast and superficial solutions, the good news is that creativity will become even more important, as technical craft will play a smaller role in the process as AI is taking over. This shift offers more time (if we choose to take it) to develop new ideas. Still, starting with well-crafted solutions can lead to even more outstanding outcomes. AI challenges us to uncover what makes us uniquely human, not by replacing our creativity but by amplifying it. It empowers us to explore new possibilities. Together with AI, we don’t just shape letters, we shape new languages of expression. To say it again in Bowie’s words, “Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.” If we are ready for change, we can own it – and the future.
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Type Trends 2025. The latest in type design, from the Monotype Studio.