Bic: UNIVERSAL TYPEFACE

Credits & Description:

Website URL: http://www.theuniversaltypeface.com/
Type of entry: Social
Category: Use of Co-Creation & User Generated Content
Advertiser: BIC DEUTSCHLAND
Product/Service: BIC PENCILS
Agency: DDB TRIBAL GROUP Düsseldorf, GERMANY

Client: BIC DEUTSCHLAND
Product: BIC PENCILS
Entrant: DDB TRIBAL GROUP Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Type of Entry: Social
Category: Use of Co-Creation & User Generated Content
Entrant Company : DDB TRIBAL GROUP Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Advertising Agency : DDB TRIBAL GROUP Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Production Company : MEDIA MONKS Hilversum, THE NETHERLANDS

Chief Creative Officer: Eric Schoeffler (Ddb Tribal Group)
Managing Director Creative: Dennis May (Ddb Tribal Group)
Creative Director: Jan Propach (Ddb Tribal Group)
Art Director: Dominika Zajac/Fabian Jung/Christian Bueltmann (Ddb Tribal Group)
Copywriter: Tobias Hecking (Ddb Tribal Group)
Project Manager: Sönke Bruns (Ddb Tribal Group)
Executive Creative Director: Jouke Vuurmans (Media Monks BV)
Executive Producer: Joris Pol (Media Monks BV)
Project Director: Quinten Beek (Media Monks BV)
Creative/Art Director: Nicolas Mollien (Media Monks BV)
Data Creative: Matthijs Klip (Media Monks BV)
Ux: Willem Baas (Media Monks BV)
Designer: Elbert Niezen/Jorge Garcia (Media Monks BV)
Animator: Maxwell Reed (Media Monks BV)
Front/End Developer: Hendrik/Jan De Harder/Nigel Manson (Media Monks BV)
R/D Developer: Richard Mulder (Media Monks BV)
Canvas Specialist: Johan Holwerda (Media Monks BV)
Back/End Developer: Chase Sillevis (Media Monks BV)
Copywriter: Matthew Elworthy (Media Monks BV)

Creative Execution:
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.