The One Show

The One Show is the world's most prestigious award show in advertising and design. For over 50 years, the Gold Pencil has been regarded as one of the top prizes in the creative industry. The One Show has a rich legacy of honoring some of the most groundbreaking ideas, created by some of the most remarkable minds in creativity.

2015 One Show - UX / UI

The Universal Typeface

Agency DDB Group GmbH / Düsseldorf

Client BIC
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Annual ID

150272A

About the Work

People write more than ever, but hardly anymore by hand. Even though this way of expressing oneself is a very special one. Particularly for Bic, the biggest producers of pens in the world. How can we engage people to the most personal way of writing again? With the UniversalTypeface.ttf: A constantly growing and changing cross-section of handwritings from people all over the world, who participated on theuniversaltypeface.com. To enter, people could use all common devices and make use of mobile connect technology, allowing them to use their smartphone as a touch-surface while browsing the site on their desktop. From a huge set of data a newly developed algorithm calculated the main font and many sub-fonts according to socio-demographic information given by the users. Over 1,7 million letters from more than 140 countries have been entered, spreading the news all over the world on social media and in the press.