Designers Rob Meek and Frank Müller have created a system that is a fusion of two very strange bedfellows, synths and typefaces. Meet the Meek FM Typographic Synthesizer:

The FM Typographic synthesizer consists of a knob-laden box that would make any synth geek salivate, connected to a Mac running software. The system is used to manipulate fonts as one would manipulate synthesizer sounds. In fact, it actually synthesizes sounds at the same time as you create fonts.

they say:

Meek FM is an interpretation of type as sound. Using new software and the M.E.E.K. typographic synthesizer, the musician/designer develops sounds and typographic visuals in parallel.

The system stores the fonts in a high-level representation – as strokes, but it can also import regular fonts such as PostScript, for editing via the synthesizer.

Rob and Frank: you’ve blown my mind.

Here’s a video that gives you the gist of how it works:

So, the first thing that entered my mind was “Ok, so now someone needs to start a full band that generates fonts as they play a song. Well, they’ve got that covered too:

• Mouth-controlled synthesizer
• The thought-controlled synthesizer
• Synthesizer T-shirt that you can play
• Steam-powered synthesizer