Contour Code is a system that encodes text in compositions of 2D geometric shapes. For example, this says “sleep”:

I had two goals in designing this system: first, to produce beautiful abstractions along the lines of Alexander Calder and Ellsworth Kelly, and second, to make a code flexible enough that any possible set of geometric shapes can be “read” as text. To achieve these goals, I designed a procedure for converting between compositions of shapes and strings of characters. In this design process, I aimed to maximize the beauty of the shapes, the elegance of the algorithm, and the system’s ease of use. Contour Code is the result of a conversation between these three values.

Instructions

To read a composition, shapes are traced to produce a sequence of straight, concave, and convex sides, and that sequence is interpreted as letters using a system like Morse Code. This video explains the basics:

The complete encoding referenced in the video is shown below. A is convex–concave; B is concave–straight–convex–convex; etc.

When reading a shape, you can use this diagram to convert from encodings back to letters.

This document describes how to order the shapes and sides when reading them.

Contour Code was included in the juried exhibition Quasi: Experimental Writing Systems at ArtCenter College of Design.