A Type of Image is a web tool that merges typography and imagery. It lets users upload images and fonts, add custom text, and create compositions as print ready SVGs. By challenging the rigid technical separation of text and image, it enables new ways of reading, seeing, and visual expression.

A Type of Image is an experimental web-based tool that redefines the relationship between typography and imagery. When starting this project, I noticed how social media has increasingly condensed visual content — shorter videos, rapid scrolling, and fleeting attention spans— causing text and images to overlap more frequently, competing for attention rather than working together.

High-efficiency design tools reinforce this divide by treating typography and imagery as separate elements, leading to rigid hierarchies and predictable layouts. A Type of Image challenges this norm by making the unity of text and image a core functionality. As an independent, open-source tool, it enables designers to create compositions where letterforms dynamically react to images, breaking typographic conventions and inviting new ways of reading and seeing.

Using the tool, users can upload their own images and fonts, add multiple text boxes with custom text, and adjust settings to define how text and images interact. The final composition can be exported as an SVG, ready for print.

The project is presented through a short video and a series of experimental compositions that explore the tool’s capabilities.

fabianstenzel.com/atypeofimage
github.com/FabianStenzel/A-Type-of-Image

Fabian Stenzel, Designer and Creative Coder
University of Applied Sciences Hamburg
Pierre Pané-Farré, Supervising Professor
Simon Thiefes, Academic Advisor