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Watch Gauzy Coral Reefs Shape-Shift Into Letters

An ecosystem of coral wiggles and expands through every letter of the alphabet.
All images and gifs courtesy the artist

A balled-up mass of fleshy ruffles unfolds into the shape of a capitalized ‘A,’ then into a ‘B,’ followed by a ‘C’ and so on until a complete brilliant alphabet is spelled out in coral reef typography. The three-dimensional animation is the work of German designer and illustrator Oliver Latta and cleverly called, CORALET.

Latta describes the project as an exploration of typography. His video of the coral ABC’s is a momentous and hypnotic reel depicting the mutations of coral, but is also a nod to cohabitating with another living species. In the mission statement for the project, Latta describes coral reefs as “teem[ing] with life, with perhaps one quarter of all ocean species depending on reefs for food and shelter. Because they are so diverse, coral reefs are often called the ‘rainforests of the sea.’ ”

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Structurally, each coral letter is a delicate art piece, carved out with curves and hollows along each line or rounded hump. The project is a stunning look at the sublime nature of marine life, further emphasized against a dense black background that mimics the endless void of the deap sea.

See a few stills from CORALET below and watch a short video of the letters in motion below:

See more animation and digital design work from Oliver Latta, on his website, here, and his Vimeo page, here.

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