HOW SIGNIFICANT IS KINETIC TYPOGRAPHY IN MOTION GRAPHICS DESIGN? Lorenzo Pavesi C103 - Professional Context 11.3.13
INTRODUCTION TO KINETIC TYPOGRAPHY
Kinetic Typography can e found anywhere the technology for showing videos or moving images is available. Be it the opening credits for a movie or a music video, a web banner advertisement at the top of a web page or enhancing the navigation of web pages by indicating active areas, or a television channel’s identity.
Kinetic type can be used as an emotional graphic element to reinforce an aesthetic design across various timeline based media, however it still keeps its principal function intact: communicating information.
WHY THIS CHOICE?
I have always been interested in motion graphics design and the use of kinetic typography in it. Movie titles are a good example of what I am concerned in. Title sequences give to the audience a taste of what the movie will look like and excite its curiosity, every single shot has a crucial function, its own pace, and represents a bullet point of the movie’s main plot.
Designers like Saul Bass and Maurice Binder paved the way of kinetic typography art. Their concepts are frequently used and exploited by the movie industry nowadays. I want to focus on this creative field because I find it strongly related to my studies, since it includes a vast array of motion graphics designer’s roles, particularly storyboarding, storytelling.
page. They produced a range of unique and expressive pieces of graphic design that integrated text with images, sometimes in collage form creating a form of visual poetry.
THE FOUNDATION
‘Purely flat typography belongs to the past. The introduction of the photographic block has enabled us to use the dynamics of three dimensions. It is precisely the contrast between the apparent three dimensions of photography and the plane form of type that gives our typography its strength.’ Jan Tschichold, 1925, The New Typography.
When the renowned typographer Jan Tschichold wrote this statement in his 1925 manifesto The New Typography the idea of a screen that could display moving letters was unimaginable. Before this date typesetting styles consisted of static centered arrangements with overly decorative letterforms completely covering the page, without empty areas. Between 1900 and 1937 the artists and poets of the so-called Avant Garde movement experimented the illusory motion of words on a static
In the early 20th century Guillaime Apollinaire and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti gave life to words by organizing them into shapes relating to their meaning. This form of typographic expression allowed free interpretations of the thoughts and ideas that were presented, allowing the viewer to give his own and unique reading of the layouts. In the 1920’s advertising companies used the available technology and installed neon signs. The type was lit and flashed rapidly, creating an illusion of movement the changing colours attracted the attention of the citizens for the first time, obtaining extraordinary results.
THE BIG SCREEN
With the arrival of cinema type needed to be presented as part of a moving environment and designers soon realised that they needed new techniques to allow effective communication through a media whose very nature was transitory. Animators like Charley Bowers used techniques that allowed to treat type just as another object. The opening credits of a film soon became a mean to set the correct mood for the film. Saul Bass had a resounding success because of the opening sequence of ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’. He presented the obligatory cast information in an innovative way, crossing the line of the usual and stepping into the entertainment zone. The viewer had no choice but to follow the next arrival of an abstract depiction of a drum stick or some cast details.
However only in 1959 Kinetic Typography made its debut into another Saul Bass title creation: Hitchcock’s “North By Northwest”. The type appeared to fall into position from outside of the screen limits, the information was aligned in the same direction and perspective as the on screen images.
Films often used type as an illustrative graphic throughout the 1960’s. For instance “After The Fox” (1966) used type to interact with the animated action designed by Maurice Binder, the renowned James Bond title designer.
Barbarella (1968) on the other hand integrated live footage with animated type that appeared to float in space along with Jane Fonda. The impact of type within a title sequence can perhaps most be judged by the opening to Star Wars (1977). While this may not be the most exciting opening sequence, it has become so iconic that any hint of it’s influence upon a subsequent title sequence would be considered a parody. In fact there’s a free app which allows the creation of a user’s own Star Wars title sequence.
The opening sequence for Se7en (1995) cannot be ignored. This sequence by Kyle Cooper is an uneasy introduction to an uneasy movie. The typography does not help to alleviate the uneasiness but actually accentuates the feeling.
TELEVISION
Early television screens brought technical challenges to motion designers: poor quality resolution, which meant that certain typefaces with fine serifs would be unreadable to the viewer, true black was not possible, displaying as a dull grey and until the late 1960’s broadcasts were only in black and white. Designers however took advantage of it as movement and sound outweighed the existing technical restrictions.
Every television production company created its own animated identity sequence, and most of them were typographically based, allowing instant recognition.
The moving logo became then a mandatory element to be included in a TV brand identity. A large proportion of identities were typographically based, allowing for instant recognition.
In the USA the constant reuse of Paul Rand’s logotype for ABC (1962) became very popular. The logotype itself does not change but is constantly updated by the style of the surrounding animation. Television programmes themselves quickly used strong opening sequences.
ACROSS THE MEDIA
With the development of media and devices, more screens became available and kinetic typography has begun to be used in its most effective ways. Its very success was given by the fact that advertisers could deliver important messages in an engaging way as text or typography videos, achieving the goal of communicating without boring the audience.
Kinetic typography therefore is delivered on a vast array of media: websites, television ads, web infographics, apps, music videos, movie scenes, educational topics and on devices such as tablets, smartphones and laptops.
NEW TIMES NEW SKILLS
Typography was traditionally a highly trained skill. Typographers would design typefaces with detailed shapes, lines and angles. Typesetters would then arrange spacing, leading and kerning for printing, press or stonemasonry. This required a high attention to detail in order to produce typography that was technically correct and visually purposeful.
Modern software availability enables computer users to create typography and motion graphics, without design training and unaware of the necessary key principles of visual communication. Conversely, a professional typographer may have very little awareness of animation principles.
Motion graphics utilising kinetic typography therefore requires a combination of skill sets from the fields of graphic design, animation and cinematography. Traditionally these were all separate disciplines, and only in the late 20th century they began to be mixed, fuelled by the development of digital media.
High quality kinetic type should be designed with attention to the existing footage: mood, shot style and colour amongst others are essential elements to considerate if the final aim is to achieve a visually and emotionally effective final piece.
FINAL ANSWER KINETIC TYPOGRAPHY STRENGHTS
Visual Interest: moving type is visually involving and promotes a cinematic experience rather than a static one. Even basic animation of type can provide an effective aesthetic for the duration of the piece. Embedding Emotion: different kinetic techniques on text can evoke varied sentiments. Fast, strong and contrasting animation can suggest confidence, power and solidity; while gentler, slower animation can suggests calmness and fragility.
The developments of the moving image industry brought a high standard in today’s professional work. Kinetic Typography has been fundamental in reaching an excellent aesthetic through temporal animation, moreover, it has instilled expression and emotion in the words featured.
Current trends such as interactive apps and videogames immerse the viewer in a mix of animation, video, audio and text. Kinetic typography will continue to be essential in completing this medium’sjigsaw through the development of motion graphics techniques and the digital media industry.