Gallery: How Arrival's Designers Crafted a Mesmerizing Alien Alphabet

  • IdentifyingLogograms
    Aaron Morrison
    01

    Arrival8-1.jpg

    *Arrival’*s design team brought in Stephen Wolfram, founder of Mathematica coding software, and his son, Christopher Wolfram, to analyze the language the way Louise and Ian might. They reasoned that each logogram could be cut up into 12 pieces.
  • IdentifyingLogograms
    Aaron Morrison
    02

    Arrival10-1.jpg

    Each section contributes to what's either a simple sentence, or a complex one.
  • Image may contain Stencil
    Aaron Morrison
    03

    Arrival1-1.jpg

    This logogram simply means "Louise."
  • IdentifyingLogograms
    Aaron Morrison
    04

    Arrival7-1.jpg

    Wolfram's software can identify and track more complex shapes, creating a bank of known words or thoughts.
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