# Di Tella generator

Your title word drawn up tall until it fills the sheet, its letters or the ground around them screened with lines that step, grade or swell. One or two flat inks.

Open the generator: https://morph.ogeny.app/di-tella/

## Design choices

- **Type as image** (`type.oversized`): Letters so large they become the picture. Set by “Type as image”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/type-as-image/
- **Tight setting** (`type.tight-setting`): Letters and lines crowded together, touching or overlapping. “Type as image”: Stacked. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/tight-setting/
- **Full bleed** (`layout.full-bleed`): Image or colour runs off every edge; no protective margins. “Type as image”: Cut by the edges. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-bleed/
- **Rotated & vertical setting** (`type.rotated`): Lines set at angles, stacked or running vertically. “Type as image”: Turned. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rotated-and-vertical-setting/
- **Optical pattern** (`form.op-pattern`): Repeated lines and modules that vibrate or warp perception. Set by “Optical pattern”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/optical-pattern/
- **Diagonal axis** (`layout.diagonal`): Composition driven by tilted axes and oblique movement. “Line direction”: Diagonal. Measured on the opening picture: edges on the diagonal 59% with “Diagonal”, 5.4% with “Across the letters” and 1.3% with “Along the letters”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagonal-axis/
- **Repetition & rhythm** (`space.repetition`): Repeated units create a visual cadence. Set by “Repetition & rhythm”. Measured on the opening picture, from 16 to 80: pixels on an edge 22% → 40%. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/
- **Limited spot colours** (`color.limited-spot`): Two or three flat inks. Set by “Limited spot colours”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/limited-spot-colours/
- **Monochrome** (`color.monochrome`): A single hue, or black and white. “Limited spot colours”: One ink. Measured on the opening picture with “One ink”: hues besides black, white and grey 0. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/
- **Flush left, ragged right** (`type.flush-left`): Asymmetric, unjustified text setting. Set by “Facts block”. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flush-left-ragged-right/
- **Condensed display** (`type.condensed-display`): Tall, narrow, heavy letters for impact. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/condensed-display/
- **Grotesque & neo-grotesque** (`type.grotesque`): Neutral, rational sans: Akzidenz-Grotesk, Helvetica, Univers. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/grotesque-and-neo-grotesque/
- **Flat fields** (`color.flat-fields`): Unmodulated areas of colour. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/
- **Extreme scale contrast** (`space.scale-contrast`): Very large against very small elements, for drama and order. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/extreme-scale-contrast/
- **Typography only** (`image.typographic-only`): No pictures; type carries everything. Always. https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/typography-only/

## How it works

- The title word is the picture: condensed capitals drawn up tall (the stems lengthen, bars and bowls keep their weight) and set tight until they fill the sheet, in one line, stacked, cut by the edges or turned.
- Its letters, or the ground around them, are screens of straight parallel lines whose thickness steps letter by letter, grades from solid to thin or swells as a wave, so the word reads through the screen.
- One or two flat inks and the white of the paper, with a small flush-left grotesque block of facts set against the enlarged word.

It never does:

- No warped or bulging stripe fields and no word repeated line after line: one word, one screen of straight lines.
- No gradients, shading or third ink, and no known poster’s title: the default words are plain nouns chosen for this generator, and the facts are generated, never placeholder text.
- Animation thickens and thins the lines once a loop and never moves them, so no point turns from light to dark more than about once a second.

## Controls

- `text` Title word (default ""): The word that becomes the picture, set in capitals. Left empty, the variation number picks one.
- `layout` Type as image (line | stacked | cut | turned; default line): How the word fills the sheet: one line drawn up tall, broken into stacked rows, larger than the sheet, or turned to read upwards.
- `rhythm` Optical pattern (stepped | graded | wave; default graded): How the line thickness changes: a step for each letter, from solid to thin down the letters, or a swelling wave.
- `direction` Line direction (across | along | diagonal; default across): Which way the lines run: across the stems, along them, or at 45 degrees. Diagonal: Measured on the opening picture: edges on the diagonal 59% with “Diagonal”, 5.4% with “Across the letters” and 1.3% with “Along the letters”.
- `lines` Repetition & rhythm (16–80, default 38): How many lines run through the sheet, per sheet width. Measured on the opening picture, from 16 to 80: pixels on an edge 22% → 40%.
- `figure` Figure and ground (letters | ground | reversal; default letters): Where the lines are: in the letters, in the ground around them, or in both, reversed inside the letters.
- `inks` Limited spot colours (one | two; default two): One ink on the paper, or a second, spot ink in bands behind the lines or in the letters. One ink: Measured on the opening picture with “One ink”: hues besides black, white and grey 0.
- `facts` Facts block (default true): A small flush-left block of facts in a grotesque, set against the word.

## About Di Tella Graphic Design (Instituto Torcuato Di Tella)

Di Tella is the name for the in-house graphics of an arts institute in Buenos Aires in the 1960s. Its posters, programmes and catalogues announced exhibitions, concerts and theatre with very little: one or two flat inks, the white of the paper, and the title of the event enlarged until it became the picture. Swiss order met the experimental art it advertised, and when the show was optical or kinetic, the letters themselves were screened with lines.

This generator works the same way. Your word is set in a condensed grotesque and drawn up tall, the stems lengthening while the bars and bowls keep their weight, then set in one line, stacked, cut by the edges of the sheet or turned to read upwards. A screen of straight lines runs through the letters or through the ground around them; its thickness steps letter by letter, grades from solid to thin, or swells as a wave, and in positive and negative the screen reverses inside the letters.

A second, spot ink can run in bands behind the lines, and a small flush-left block of facts, generated from the variation number, sits against the word. With animation on, the lines thicken and thin as a slow wave passes through the word; they never move, so nothing flickers.

Di Tella Graphic Design (Instituto Torcuato Di Tella) in Stylogeny (1960–1970): https://stylogeny.com/styles/di-tella-graphics/

## Recipe

```json
{
  "tool": "di-tella",
  "v": 1,
  "seed": 9,
  "format": "square",
  "params": {
    "text": "",
    "layout": "line",
    "rhythm": "graded",
    "direction": "across",
    "lines": 38,
    "figure": "letters",
    "inks": "two",
    "facts": true
  },
  "palette": "di-tella-graphics"
}
```