ASCII-Topia

In graphic design, we normally view type as one-of-many important design elements to pull together a final piece. Manipulating fonts is an art in and of itself. But what happens, when the 95 printable characters on a keyboard are all you have to work with?

In the early days of computing in the late 1970's and early 1980's, the limitations of systems available at the time necessitated the use of text characters to represent images. This became particularly popular in computer bulletin board systems, which was like the first generation Internet. Along with ASCII's use in communication, however, it also began to appear in the underground online art groups in the form of comics. During the 1990s, graphical browsing and variable-width fonts became increasingly popular, leading to a decline in ASCII art. For the most part, ASCII art is mostly use in IM, chat and gaming applications as an additional form of communication. :-)

Below are some examples of interesting ASCII art. Feel free to post comments with your contributions.