‘voice print’ transforms speech patterns into typographic scores
Voice Print by designer Isabelle Tan is a book that explores how we speak, focusing on disfluencies such as repetition, hesitation, and prolongation as meaningful parts of identity. The project translates spoken language into a visual system, where each transcription functions as a musical score that maps sound and time through typography. Using a limited set of formal rules, the design reveals patterns within speech that often go unnoticed. These mappings draw connections between stuttering and melismatic singing, showing how variations in rhythm and repetition shape individual linguistic expression.
typographic score/notation spread, printed on translucent paper | all images courtesy of Isabelle Tan
isabelle tan reveals rhythm, time, and expression in language
The book’s essays extend this approach through layouts that mirror the fluidity of the notation system. Typography moves across the page with a sense of rhythm, allowing readers to follow the ‘harmonic sequence’ of a sentence and better understand how meaning emerges through timing and variation. By visualizing speech in this way, Voice Print shifts attention from correctness to expression, highlighting how irregularities contribute to communication rather than disrupt it.
the book jacket
inspired by jjjjerome ellis, project reframes disfluency as identity
The project draws inspiration from artist and musician JJJJerome Ellis, whose work examines stuttering as a site of meaning and identity. Voice Print builds on this perspective, treating disfluency not as a limitation but as a source of structure, rhythm, and individuality. Through this approach, the book proposes a new way of reading speech, where typography, sound, and identity intersect to form a shared visual and linguistic experience.
Chapter divider
Essay Spread
Essay Spread
Image Spread (Essay)
Essay Spread
Essay Spread
project info:
name: Voice Print
designer: Isabelle Tan
designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.
edited by: claire brodka | designboom
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