The 'Firefly' font is a specially designed typeface system developed for 'All The Time In The World' - a digital installation by Troika for British Airways at Heathrow's Terminal 5.
Design and Development
The system uses electroluminescent ink, silk-screened onto flexible, transparent acetate and are displayed behind a deep-blue glass wall. Troika's 'Firefly' type is divided up i nto segments, each individually addressable and able to display up to 5 different typefaces. The visible, glowing circuit is finished with the letters being animated by switching on these segments as if they were being hand-drawn by an invisible hand. The result is an unique visual aesthetic developed from the technical challenges as well as the creative process. The typeface is built out of 67 circuits for each letter. The letters appear by switching on different combinations of the segments within a cell. This technology can be expanded upon in complexity allowing for even more intricate typefaces, however also needing ever more complex driving technology.
Using the 'Firefly' technology 'All The Time In The World' resulted in a display with unique properties: it doesn’t cast light and disturbing shadow on it’s surrounding, it can be curved, and is extremely competitive compared to other display technologies such as LED if only text is required. Based on a vectorial design, its advantages are all the more noticeable in large scale (like 'All the Time in the World') or very small. The technique is transferable to other emerging technology such as OLED, PLED or E-paper. This is the first time that a display system of this kind has been implemented worldwide.