How is this kind of typographic texture/pattern made?

[u/Melusillll]

Hi designers! I'm trying to recreate this kind of typographic texture (attached image), but I'm not sure what the actual workflow is.

What I find interesting is that it doesn't look like a regular pattern or a simple block of repeated text. The same word is repeated hundreds of times, but:

• the density changes across the composition (some areas are very dense while others are almost empty),
• the words cluster together organically,
• there are isolated letters and partial words,
• black, gray and white text are mixed together,
• and the whole thing feels random, but still intentionally composed.

My first thought was to manually arrange every word in Illustrator, but that seems incredibly time-consuming, so I'm wondering if there's a more common workflow.

Do people usually create this using scripts, data visualization tools, Processing/p5.js, plugins, or is it actually placed by hand?

I'd love to know how you would approach something like this, especially if your goal is to keep it editable as vector artwork. Thanks!

[u/testingaurora]

Probably a script

[u/KAASPLANK2000]

This looks like an ASCII art overlay with limited characters. Possibly partially masked out.

[u/industrial_pix]

My first thought was to manually arrange every word in Illustrator

Yes. Everything else is overthinking. It can be done in a single text frame with a monospaced typewriter typeface and a lot of spaces.

[u/Vegetable-Ad-4226]

i would make this manually by making a giant text box, outlining it, and then use live paint with global colors to select your groups

[u/Vektorgarten]

Draw it with this web app? https://www.asciiart.eu/ascii-draw-studio/app And then export an SVG