Visual Communication - Bachelors
The Spatuletail typeface is a typographic take on biomimetic design. It takes inspiration from the Marvellous Spatuletail, an endangered species of Hummingbird, endemic to northern Peru. The aim of this typeface is to capture some of the beauty of this gem-like organism and perhaps to make people take interest in ensuring this species' longterm wellbeing.
The Spatuletail typeface is a biomimetic design, meaning that it imitates the forms seen in nature. While biomimicry is a fairly well explored concept in industrial and product design, it is seldom seen in graphic design as generally biomimicry involves three dimensional functionality which makes it difficult to achieve in a largely two-dimensional discipline. Spatuletail, takes the concept of biomimicry and applies it to typography, focusing mostly on the aesthetic aspect as opposed to the functional aspect. That is not to say that the typeface serves no purpose or function, however its function is not as practical as the biomimicry in bullet trains or velcro is, instead the function of the typeface is to capture people’s attention with its nature-inspired beauty and to cause the viewer to become interested in the animal that inspired its design.
Matthew Escobar is an Argentinian/Salvadoran graphic designer based in Springfield. His favourite areas of graphic design are typography and branding design. As a massive animal lover, he often tries to involve nature in his projects, however he is not at all limited to natural designs.