Connor Fairclough

Brand & motion

01/08/2025
RESEARCH JOURNAL — 01

ASCII:
An accidental visualisation of technology

The well known visual language ASCII, is perharps most commonly associated with industries such tech, down to its retro-future style. Around for seemingly forever (at least during the digital age), I was intrigued to better understand this process, and how it rose to prominence.
Having noticed the “ASCII” aesthetic popping up more frequently over the past 12 months or so, I was curious to better understand the origin of this visual language.

On the surface, ASCII appeared to me as a means of creating grid-based visuals using text, symbols or shapes, most likely triggered by input such as footage, gradients or 3D models (A kind of procedural set up, black = 1 and white = 2, and assets are mapped between the variables). However upon deeper investigation, I was fascinated by the origin of ASCII.
ASCII originated as a purely functional coding system, a means to assign numerical value to 128 letters, numbers, punctuation and control commands. But over time creatives began to reinterpret ASCII characters as a toolkit for creating visuals. Illustration, patterns and typography, built line-by-line on a character grid.

Propelled in the 90s with the rise of email, instant messaging and early web culture, a visual language emerged. Consciously or otherwise, ASCII art became a part of our digital lexicon, from the simple and familiar :-), to intricate illustrations utilising expansive and dense grids made entirely of characters.What followed was a wave of reinterpretation. Creatives have abstracted the core principles as a means to create progressive methodologies. No longer restricted to working with the original 128 ASCII characters, but shapes, imagery, illustration, colour, almost anything. Resulting in a contemporary visual language, that touches on a sense of nostalgia.

Past techniques naturally influence contemporary design, ASCII exemplifies this. With the meteoric growth in the number of AI and tech companies, it is common for designers to look back on traditional codes within a sector and evolve them for contemporary application. In this case it may be ‘technology’. Which most likely explains why this visual approach is becoming more prominent. It may also be due to visual similarities to scripting consoles. Regardless, due to the rich variability of this approach, each use case can be applied uniquely (and successfully) with a strong underpinning conceptual approach.


CLOSING THOUGHTS
What is arguably most compelling about ASCII is not the visual attributes, but its evolution. From something developed out of pure utility with no intention for creative use, seamlessly growing into a source of visual expression that holds up today. Illustrating the value of finding original reference points in the unexpected, potentially even mundane, places.






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