TYPOGRAPHY, AI PRODUCTION, MISSION-DRIVEN

THE DUKE LEMUR CENTER

Closer Than You Think

PROBLEM:

The Duke Lemur Center needed to reach audiences with a conservation story, and CYLNDR Studios partnered with LTX Studio/Lightricks to tell it using generative AI. That raised a hard question the film had to answer visually: how do you use AI-generated imagery to advocate for real, endangered animals without the work feeling synthetic or exploitative? The typography carried more weight than usual — headlines were the one human-authored element on screen, and the wrong typeface would tip a sincere film into something that felt machine-made.

APPROACH:

I owned typeface exploration and selection for the film's headlines. Rather than choosing on aesthetics alone, I worked from the constraint the project was really under: the type had to feel warm and hand-considered enough to counterbalance AI-generated visuals, while still reading as forward-looking rather than nostalgic. I explored a wide range of typographic voices against the film's actual frames, testing how each one held up beside AI imagery, and narrowed to the option that made the film feel authored — a deliberate signal that people, not a model, were making the argument.

OUTCOME:

"Closer Than You Think" won Gold at the New York Festivals AI Short Film Contest, recognized both for craft and for its ethical approach to AI storytelling. The typography did quiet, necessary work: it kept a film made largely by machines feeling like it came from someone who cared about the animals in it.

AGENCY:  CYLNDR Studios

CLIENT:    The Duke Lemur Center

CDs:         Can Misirlioglu