Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 8: Tooling Era (2000s)
2009
MuirMcNeil founded

Founded by Paul McNeil and Hamish Muir, MuirMcNeil uses software to explore parametric design systems in typography and graphic design. Their work can be seen as generative typography or generative design. The pair have spoken to Eye Magazine about a lack of acceptance from peers of their algorithmic-derived methodology, echoing a lot of early criticism of computer art, with their work referred to “as something that anybody could do—as if there’s no real quality to it.”
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
People
Movements
Computer Text, Generative Writing, graphic design
Filed under
- Ideas
- Computer Text, design, generative design, Generative Writing, graphic design, typography
- Technologies
- generative typography, parametric systems
- People
- Hamish Muir, Paul McNeil
- Organisations
- Eye Magazine, MuirMcNeil
Echoes across time
- 1974 · Muriel Cooper Founds the Visible Language Workshop
- 1970 · Generación Automática de Formas Plásticas Exhibition at the Centro de Cálculo of the University of Madrid
- 1987 · Adope Illustrator Developed
Le Random editorials
Le Random podcast
- Timeline Ch 8—Tooling Era (2000s) with Christiane Paul, Casey Reas, Christa Sommerer & Golan Levin — listen with transcript on Le Random (15 May 2024, 64 min). Chapter 8’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify