| Title | THE POLITE TYPE |
| Brand | TIETOEVRY |
| Product/Service | IT SERVICES |
| Category |
A02. Applied Innovation |
|
Entrant
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TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
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Idea Creation
|
TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
|
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PR
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TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
|
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Production
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TBWA\HELSINKI, FINLAND
|
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Production 2
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GREAT APES Helsinki, FINLAND
|
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Production 3
|
TMI MELVAS TYPE DESIGN Vantaa, FINLAND
|
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Additional Company
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THE CHILDREN AND YOUTH FOUNDATION Helsinki, FINLAND
|
Credits
| Jyrki Poutanen |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Chief Creative Officer |
| Mikko Pietilä |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Executive Creative Director |
| Virpi Grönlund |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Client Service Director |
| Markus Nieminen |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Creative Director |
| Juhana Hokkanen |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Innovation Director |
| Joona Stedt |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Account Manager |
| Simone Bocedi |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Senior Content Strategist |
| Fredrik Stürmer |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Art Director |
| Maria Kuorikoski |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Senior Creative |
| Antti Halme |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Senior Creative |
| Iida Sarpaniemi |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Graphic Designer |
| Atso Wilén |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Graphic Designer |
| Henrik Storsjö |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Video Editor |
| Paula Sonne |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Communications Strategist |
| Saana Simander |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Junior Communications Specialist |
| Sara Pitzén |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Junior Communications Specialist |
| Katariina Ollari |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Content Producer |
| Eemeli Tani |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Performance & Analytics Manager |
| Juho Ojala |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Planner |
| Lisa Myllymäki |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Director |
| Tuukka Tikkanen |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Producer |
| Anton Tevajärvi |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Director Of Photography |
| Aki Karppinen |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Gaffer |
| Mikko Kuoppasalmi |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Editor |
| Anssi Mahlamäki |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Motion Designer |
| Ville-Matti Koskiniemi |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Sound Design |
| Petri Falkenberg |
Grade One |
Post Production |
| Aino Heiniö |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Costume Design |
| Donna Maimon |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Casting |
| Fanny Haga |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Photographer |
| Jonna Yletyinen |
TBWA\Helsinki |
Still Producer |
| Mika Melvas |
TMI Melvas Type Design |
Typeface Designer |
| Jonna Louvrier |
External Consultant |
Diversity and Inclusion Advisor |
| Michaela Moua |
External Consultant |
Diversity and Inclusion Advisor |
| Sara Salmani |
External Consultant, Inklusiiv |
Diversity and Inclusion Advisor |
| Anaka Kobzev |
TBWA Worldwide |
Global Head of Corporate Communications |
| Melissa Gotleib |
TBWA Worldwide |
Global Communications Associate |
| Doug Melville |
TBWA Worldwide |
Chief Diversity Officer, North America |
| Kia Haring |
TietoEVRY |
Head of Communications and Sustainablity |
| Hanne Haapoja |
TietoEVRY |
Head of Group Customer Insight |
| Mari Tuokko |
TietoEVRY |
Communications Lead, Finland |
| Reija Sihlman |
TietoEVRY |
Head of PR and Issues Management |
| Nelli Melin |
TietoEVRY |
Digital Content Manager |
| Annika Uusikari |
TietoEVRY |
Content Creator |
Why is this work relevant for Innovation?
In The Polite Type project, we needed to innovate new ways to use a traditional model of typography and font technology to create a functionality and user experience which is something that has never been done with a font. As we set up the aim to create the functionality of creating more beautiful language in the most simplistic way, we needed to take functionalities of the Open Type syntax that were originally made to make the font itself more beautiful.
Background
Substituting offensive words is a functionality that has been used in many places in the digital world, from Leisure Suit Larry 1 to many others. This is a functionality that we wanted to bring into everyday communication between people on online platforms to make our interactions more empathetic.
The development was very limited because of the natural limitations of the Open Type syntax as we used it in a totally new way and for a new purpose. We were able to create a workaround to tackle the limitations quite well but some of the desired functionalities were not possible.
The budget for the design and development of the font was EUR 18,400 reserved for the font digital development, and EUR 5,500 reserved for the custom typeface design. The total for linguistic support and workshops cannot be fully estimated due to pro bono work from various stakeholders.
Describe the idea
The Polite Type is a font that recognises and rewrites hate speech. By launching a self-moderating font, TietoEVRY wanted to create discussion about toxic online culture and cyberbullying, the social responsibility of tech companies in solving these issues and innovative ways companies could use tech to foster empathy online.
Together with The Children and Youth Foundation and diversity and inclusion experts, we identified offensive language related to online bullying and created a word library where each word was given a more inclusive alternative or blocked altogether. This word library was then coded into an Open Type font file, creating a custom font that gives its users direct feedback on their language use.
The Polite Type is a font that can be used on any platform. All the functionalities are incorporated inside the font itself, so no applications, keyboards or such have to be installed.
What were the key dates in the development process?
10 January 2020 - Proof of concept
03 February 2020 - 15 May 2020 Linguistic corpus analysis
27 March 2020 - Visual Design ready
During May 2020 - Workshops with teenagers and The Children and Youth Foundation
28 May 2020 & 11 June 2020 - Workshops with Diversity & Inclusion advisors
5 June 2020 - Prototype #1
18 June 2020 - Prototype #2
9 June 2020 - 6 August 2020 - Testing
20 August 2020 - Launch
Describe the innovation / technology
The Polite Type is a font that can be used on any platform. All the functionalities are incorporated inside the font itself, so no applications, keyboards or such have to be installed. The word substitution functionality uses the ligature substitution functionality of the Opentype syntax. This functionality was originally made to make Arabic words writable by combining letters and for example the “fi” letter combination to look good with a substituted ligature. We basically used a functionality that was created to make typography more beautiful to actually make the written language more beautiful.
The base for the substitution is a library of words with their contexts. To build the word library, we used linguistic corpus analysis to identify vocabulary related to a number of themes linked to cyberbullying. The substitutional function recognises character strings and looks for the context. If a negative context is found, the wording is substituted with more polite language. Sometimes words don’t have any polite substitutes. In these cases, the words are blurred with a special character designed for the font.
The system is based on three components: the visual typography, a word/context-library and a PHP script that combines these two.
The font is in beta-phase.
Describe the expectations / outcome
The outcome of the project was tremendous. We got people talking about the issue of cyberbullying and hatespeech, hitting over 900 million reach meaning 8,5 million euros in earned media. More importantly we got over 27 thousand people testing the font, and out of all testers over 10% downloaded the font for further use.
We were also able to scale the project up by cooperating with HEI Schools that have schools around the world. Added to that, Friends Sweden is joining the project to take it even further.
The relevance for TietoEVRY is clear. An IT company whose vision is to create a brighter future together is creating a system that makes online platforms safer and more polite to everyone.
The beauty of the selected technology used is that it is easy to scale up. The font can work as a tool for all online platforms.