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‘Robosans’ is a so-called robot created font from Egyptian designer Mostafa El Abasiry. It was created by putting a brush in the arm of a robot. The artist controls the, albeit limited, movement of the arm via a controller wired to the robot. This controller is the hinge of why the “robot created font” was not created by a robot.
I have a wired controller hooked up to a robot in front of me right now. It’s called a mouse and it interfaces with my computer. While what I can do with it is limited, I’m able to use it to input to my computer to create fonts, images, and other graphics. I would not, under any circumstances, refer to my computer as the ‘designer.’ Not unlike the ‘robosans’ font. The robot used to create ‘robosans’ is just a tool utilized by the artist as a means to an end. At the end of the day, it’s still the hand of the artist that moves the robot. No artificial intelligence was used in the creation of this font and you can tell based on the look of the font.
While a robot was used in the production of the font, the soul of the artist is apparent. The lines of the font seem organic in appearance and its grittiness and style reminds me distinctly of certain types of graffiti. Very not robotic. There used to be a machine in Wal-Mart that I thought was pretty cool when I was a kid. Way before home computers and printers were a really big thing, there was the Hallmark custom card machine. You would select your card template and customize with names and little markers would pop out and ‘draw’ your card for you in front of your eyes. I recall this story because I was thinking about the quality of line that the card machine created. It was really precise. The kind of thing you would expect from a robot. Which is completely in contrast to what you get from the ‘robosans’ font.
Now, is that to say that ‘robosans’ is a bad font? Absolutely not. I’m just saying that calling it ‘robot created’ is taking it too far. I really like this font and can see it being really useful for headlines in modern design. I would like to give a great deal of credit to Mostafa El Abasiry and much less credit to his robot. Mostafa made an excellent font.