Time, motion, and graphic design are all just tiny labels for huge concepts that are connected.
At some times, time, motion, and graphic design are very closely connected,
while at other times, they can be
so far
REMOVED
from each other that it is difficult to find the link. If graphic designers understand how to balance time, motion, and graphic design, they can effectively send concise messages that best represent their concept to the target audience.
TIM
Time can be defined as the clock ticking, the Earth spinning, or even something as simple as the eyes moving. Time is an essential, undeniable, and persistent part of living that exists in everything we do. While graphic designers have the opportunity to manipulate time, to stretch it, to shorten it, and to make it seem sporadic,
ME
they do not have the control to stop time. The closest the audience gets to stopping time is closing a book: the words do not continue to read themselves and the pages do not keep turning on their own. But even with that book closed, the plot continues. You, as the reader, continue to think about the story. Perhaps you close your eyes, fall asleep, and the book continues as you dream. Maybe the story gets replayed as you tell a friend about the tragic hero’s progress. At the very least, you remember the time spent reading it. And all of those things take time as well. Not to mention, that closed book sitting there on your shelf is still going through time – notice the dust particles sitting on top, proving the amount of minutes, months, or decades it’s been since you last read it.
Graphic designers, whom I will from now on simply refer to as artists, do not have complete control over time, but they can use it to enhance their concept. For instance, imagine an artist is designing a 30 second advertisement for a movie.
The movie is extremely fastpaced and exciting with lots of action scenes. If the artist’s goal is to demonstrate just how intense the movie is going to be, they can make very rapid scene changes, introduce some black flashing screens, and add in some musical crescendos to create a heart-thumping, quick-feeling ad.
Now, imagine that this advertisement is for a movie about aging.
The artist now only uses one take of a clock ticking for all 30 seconds. All of the aspects in the first ad build tension and anticipation, which can make a 30 second advertisement seem incredibly fast. This is especially true in juxtaposition to a 30 second advertisement that is only showing 30 seconds of your time passing by.
These changes demonstrate how an artist can manipulate time to best fit their concept. These changes also demonstrate how an artist can make bad art. If an artist fails to manipulate time in an appropriate manner to get their concept across, it will affect the effectiveness of their final product.
(Yes, an artist can choose to have a concept that is confusing, and will
l purposefully manipulate time poorly.)
MOTION Artists do, on the other hand, have the ability to stop motion, or at least the ability to get close enough. Some could make the argument that everything is always moving because the Earth is constantly rotating, but the human mind can only handle so much. Motion can be defined as movement over time. Since everything is always subject to time, motion must simply become a sliding scale between movement and the lack of movement. However, this is only because most people take the fact that time does not stop when they stop paying attention for granted. Most people do not understand that the story keeps going after you close the cover. This is where artists have more control.
While most people would immediately think of a printed poster as static, unmoving, and therefore lacking motion, our definition of time tells us otherwise. The average successful poster has a hierarchy.
Usually, a large image, a large header, some medium-sized important information, and some tiny additional facts. The size, thickness, and color of these things determine the order in which the audience obtains information. This gives the artist the ability to control both time and motion simultaneously. They control time by dictating how quickly someone’s eyes move from information to information.
Perhaps they minimize white space between two pieces of information to make the viewer see them faster. Maybe the artist puts the two pieces of information on opposite sides of the poster in order to exaggerate the time it takes for the audience to connect the pieces of information. The artist also controls the motion by dictating the placement of the information on the posters. Maybe they are advertising for a book club, and so they choose a typical left-to-right positioning to mimic the motion of reading a book. Or perhaps the artist is advertising for a circus and put the information in a circle, making the viewer dizzy. The simplest changes in design can lead to huge changes in the audience’s experience of time and motion.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Graphic design is a compilation of many different aspects such as color, shape, dimensionality, and (of course) time and motion. While these aspects occasionally work harder for different concepts, the ultimate goal of graphic design is to communicate an idea efficiently. All aspects of graphic design make up a
kit of parts
that, when combined correctly, can create immensely powerful messages.
It is the job of the artist to use the available kit of parts to create the experience for the viewer that most closely aligns with their message.
TIME MOTION
GRAPHIC DE
ESIGN
These definitions and understandings of time, motion, and graphic design are vital to understanding how these elements work independently and dependently of one another. Time, motion, or graphic design can influence a message to varying degrees. The artist who understands how they should work together has much more control over the effectiveness of their message. It is necessary to understand that there is never one definitive answer.
It is not a Venn diagram, it is not a chart; it is the ebbing and flowing of one idea into another until the combination of time, motion, and graphic design portrays exactly what the artist intends the viewer to see.