The project was entirely realised as a scalable web app that works on mobile as well as on desktop devices.

To avoid the unnatural input of letters by mouse computer users contribute by default via a mobile connect solution. All they needed to do was punch in a code, to synchronize their touchscreen device with their windows or OS X computer.

A facebook login made additional stays on the platform worthwhile and furthered the spread of the project.

As the experiment has just started, results are far from being final.

However the number of characters entered as well as countries involved are constantly being updated and can be viewed on the site.

Like today’s world it’s dynamic and continuously changing in a very hands on, direct way – the universal typeface made possible by the universal pen.

The Bic Cristal ballpoint is the best selling pen ever. We hope, we didn’t change that.

With over 100 Billion items produced by Bic, the Cristal ballpoint pen is the best selling pen ever. It can be called the world’s pen – the universal pen.

Yet this pen is so universal, such a commodity that it hardly gets the attention it deserves. We were tasked to change that, especially in the design-savvy community on the web, where the concept of writing by hand seems kind of counter-intuitive at first glance.

The idea: If there’s a universal pen, there should be a universal handwriting, too. Time for an experiment.

On www.theuniversaltypeface.com we firstly address design and especially typography-savvy users, who enter their own handwriting, which then becomes part of the universal typeface – an ever-changing, evolving font that can be downloaded at various stages of development, which then trickles down to a broader user base.

In essence it’s the first crowd sourced cross-section of human handwriting.