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1 University of Iowa Iowa Research Online Theses and Dissertations Spring 2015 Temporal typography Leslie-Anne Fernando Stake University of Iowa Copyright 2015 Leslie-Anne Fernando Stake This thesis is available at Iowa Research Online: Recommended Citation Stake, Leslie-Anne Fernando. "Temporal typography." MFA (Master of Fine Arts) thesis, University of Iowa, Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Art Practice Commons

2 TEMPORAL TYPOGRAPHY by Leslie-Anne Fernando Stake A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Art in the Graduate College of The University of Iowa May 2015 Thesis Supervisor: Associate Professor Bradley Dicharry

3 Copyright by LESLIE-ANNE FERNANDO STAKE 2015 All Rights Reserved

4 Graduate College The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL MASTER S THESIS This is to certify that the Master s thesis of Leslie-Anne Fernando Stake has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Art at the May 2015 graduation. Thesis Committee: Bradley Dicharry, Thesis Supervisor Ab Gratama Anita Jung Sara Langworthy

5 To my family and Gregg. ii

6 To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry. Design broadens perception, magnifies experience, and enhances vision. Design is the product of feeling and awareness, of ideas that originate in the mind of the designer and culminate, one hopes, in the mind of the spectator. Paul Rand Form & Content iii

7 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee members for their advice, encouragement and wisdom. Thank you Professor Brad Dicharry for your design advice, career advice and helping me build confidence as a designer. Professor Ab Gratama, thank you for your design wisdom and encouraging me to pursue what I am most passionate about. I also wish to thank Professor Anita Jung for your invaluable insight on my work; it has helped me develop as a designer and an artist. I would like to also acknowledge Sara Langworthy for helping me appreciate and develop further craftsmanship in my work and the theory and history of typography. To my parents, Steven and Remedios Stake, thank you for supporting me in every way possible and helping me pursue my dream. Sheryl, thank you for always being there for me, listening to me and giving me confidence in what I do. Finally, thank you Gregg Mock; I know I could not have done this without your support and encouragement. iv

8 PUBLIC ABSTRACT Since the digital revolution, there has been a significant impact on how we live, work and play. For designers, it has transformed design practices and created new opportunities. However, this can bring about new problems and challenges. How can we communicate effectively in the digital age with different media and technologies advancing so rapidly? With the overload of information from tablets, smartphones, computers and television, we often start to overlook information. From research, I will argue techniques that can help us understand information in the digital realm and prove the importance of expression within visual communication. v

9 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES... viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION PARAMETERS AND CONCERNS BEING INFORMED BY TERMINOLOGY... 6 Temporal Typography DESIGNING TEMPORAL TYPOGRAPHY Happy Type Sad Type Angry Type Fear Type Color Choice IMPLEMNTATION LEGIBILITY CONCLUSION: FUTURE RESEARCH AND INQUIRY APPENDIX A. FIGURES BIBLIOGRAPHY vi

10 LIST OF FIGURES Figure A1. Diagram of Kinetic Classification A2. Scrolling Type Exercise A3. Dynamic Layout Exercise A4. Elastic Typography Exercise A5. Metamorphosis Exercise A6. Construction Exercise A7. Revelation Exercise A8. Happiness Exercise Animation A9. Fear Exercise Animation A10. Sad Exercise Animation A11. Anger Exercise Animation A12. Fear Temporal Type, Whole Alphabet A13. Gordon Typeface A14. Happy Temporal Type, Whole Alphabet A15. Happy Temporal Type, ABC A16. Happy Temporal Type, Wiggle A17. Sad Temporal Type Possibility # A18. Sad Temporal Type Possibility # A19. Sad Temporal Type Possibility # A20. Sad Temporal Type Possibility # A21. Sad Temporal Type Possibility # A22. Questa Typeface viii

11 A23. Sad Typeface Watercolor A24. Sad Temporal Type, ABC A25. Sad Temporal Type, Whole Alphabet A26. Angry Typeface A27. Angry Temporal Type, Whole Alphabet A28. Angry Scribbled Typeface A29. Angry Temporal Type, ABC A30. Angry Temporal Type, Quiver A31. Bebas Typeface A32. Fear Temporal Type, ABC A33. Happy Temporal Type Word Test A34. Happy Temporal Type Phrase Test A35. Sad Temporal Type Word Test A36.Sad Temporal Type Phrase Test A37. Fear Temporal Type Word Test A38. Fear Temporal Type Phrase Test A39. Angry Temporal Type Word Test A40. Angry Temporal Type Phrase Test A41. Happy Temporal Type Opposite Word Experiment Test A42. Happy Temporal Type Opposite Phrase Experiment Test A43. Sad Temporal Type Opposite Word Experiment Test A44. Sad Temporal Type Opposite Phrase Experiment Test A45. Fear Temporal Type Opposite Word Experiment Test A46. Fear Temporal Type Opposite Phrase Experiment Test ix

12 A47. Angry Temporal Type Opposite Word Experiment Test A48. Angry Temporal Type Opposite Phrase Experiment Test A49. Happy Experimental Composition A50. Sad Experimental Composition A51. Fear Experimental Composition A52. Angry Experimental Composition x

13 PREFACE In this thesis I will talk about my process of temporal typography and explore, argue and expose the relevance of temporal typography for attention techniques. With the age of technology we are overloaded with information and we tend not to read information and I will talk about ways digital typography can be a way to better understand information. xi

14 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Typography always takes on characteristics of its era. It represents where we are as a culture, and what technologies we possess. Since the digital revolution, there has been a significant impact on how we live, work and play. For designers it has transformed design practices and created new opportunities. The way we visually communicate has surpassed printed medium and moved to phones, tablets, television, computers and digital signs. As such, there has been exploration of the use of dynamic text to enrich visual communication. In this thesis, I will take a closer look at animated type as a tool for communication, specifically a new term called temporal typography, to explore expressiveness and visual communication. The study of typography and the printed page is very structured and rooted in history. However, there is limited research and structural exploration in the field of temporal typography. As such, my work is very explorative in an effort to gain a comprehensive understanding of the elements of temporal type and it s benefits and my thesis seeks to find structure in this medium by defining terms in regards to my work. As we pull our attentions more to digital medium, it is important to establish reasoning and concept to digital and expressive typography to continue to add to the study of the practice. Temporal typography is a medium that is becoming prevalent in practice, but is still underdeveloped in research and reasoning. I seek to find the merit in temporal type and argue its importance to visual communication.

15 2 CHAPTER 2 PARAMETERS AND CONCERNS Typography is the visual treatment of written language to enrich visual communication. 1 Even though motion and expression can be expressed in printed works by repeating letterforms, changing directions, using uneven baselines, change of color and typefaces, temporal typography gives the opportunity to communicate with behaviors or actions as well as with visual form. My work is focused on creating four temporal types based on the four basic human emotions: happiness, sadness, fear and anger. I chose these parameters to cover the over arching theme of expression. My work is not about temporal typefaces, but on exploring the effects temporal type has in digital communication. However, I chose to create four temporal type sets to have a wider range of test options to explore and note the successes and failures of different types of animations. By animating more than hundred letterforms, I could learn more about the process, establish a process, and be better educated about this field. In addition, with the individual letterforms, the possibilities in creating compositions are greater to explore, learn from and change, than if I sought out to just create certain compositions. For the subject matter of emotions in my work, it is irrelevant in the research and exploration of temporal type but was chosen to explore the idea of expression, as it is an important variable to temporal type. Communication is the transmission of thoughts, feelings and ideas from one source to another and people can communicate through 1 Spencer, The Liberated Page

16 3 gestures, facial expressions, body postures, images and written words. As such, I thought feelings and expression represented a main reason for communication and would be the ideal way to explore the visual emotions temporal type can bring. Having a series of temporal type that I could put into different words and phrases with different personalities would be the best way to discover temporal typography. I m not sure if this exploration will be successful as temporal type could be more distracting than practical, but I found there is a relevance to be explored based off past and present design and type styles. However, I do question if there is relevance and conceptual function to temporal typefaces or are they just another excessive use of technology? If successful, what could the future hold for temporal type? Could it be useful in s or text messages to better emote our feelings or strictly kept for video communication? When starting my work, I ran into a lot of concerns. Since temporal typography is not well known in research, a lot of my decisions came from exploration and intuition. I found I was restricting my concepts and the capabilities because I was too concerned about the rules and ideas of typography. It was important for me, at the time, to be very legible and I found myself making very rigid and modern temporal type that contradicted the idea and reasoning behind kinetic typography. I came to realize that the rules were practically non-existent, which made development harder and led me to many questions. Should I distort these beyond recognition if need be, or should they retain legibility? Is readability important or is it more about the expression of communication? Do I create my own typeface to animate or can I use pre-existing typefaces? The process of my work took many forms, and I found myself changing the

17 4 intention of my work. Initially, I did set out to create temporal typefaces, but as I worked and researched I realized that this was not practical and lacked conceptual thinking. There is not enough reasoning and classifications in temporal typography to merit animated typefaces and that was when I decided to turn my attention to the history, exploration and future of temporal type. I became more interested in the changing of letterforms over time, and how this can be important to visual communication. I disregarded the process of developing animated typefaces and changed the process to be more focused on the psychological and expressive qualities of temporal type. Even though my work has manifested in the form of temporal type, it is important to establish that the goal of my work is to understand the influence of various animations on letterforms. This changed my process completely and helped me establish to not focus on creating and developing typefaces to be animated but animating existing typefaces instead. This was an important distinction because in the creation of developing typefaces, a lot goes into the design of the letterforms to create legible text and personalities. There is a lot of intricate and minute detail that goes into typeface design and as I started in this process, I realized that developing a typeface to then be changed and distorted was counterintuitive. It served no purpose to my research of animated typography as the merit lies in what is happening in the animation. Even though I was mostly intuitive driven, my research of the history of typefaces and the history of motion graphics has helped inform my decisions. I took inspiration from Futurists and incorporated qualities from lettering and typography. The process and research I have done has guided me toward new knowledge and skills about expressiveness and typography to help me develop my work. I ve discovered that temporal type is not like

18 5 typography, lettering or calligraphy, it is its own identity with different concepts, classifications and processes. I needed to push the boundaries of time and motion if I wanted to truly discover the potential of animated typography.

19 6 CHAPTER 3 BEING INFORMED BY TERMINOLOGY It was important for me to establish what a temporal type was and wasn t. Was I creating a temporal typeface or temporal letterforms? I wanted to be sure I was using the right terms and ideas to help inform and educate my process. Lettering is the art of drawing letters and even though I took principles and ideas of drawn letters, I did not take the aspect of having completely individualized and customized letters, words or phrases. Typography is the design and arrangement of words. Lettering is informed by typography but they are not the same. As I worked on animated type, I too realized that I was not creating temporal typefaces, but merely exploring what movement within type can do to communicate better to the viewer. This was an important discovery because I was too focused on the idea of type design; having to design a typeface from scratch just to animate. As I worked, I discovered that this process and my work were not about that. Temporal type uses elements of typography, but its intentions are different and therefore so should its processes. The focus no longer becomes about a geometric letterform, or how sharp a serif may be. The attention becomes turned to how a serif, finial or bowl of a letterform can dissolve or move. As such, I decided to call my explorations temporal type and became informed by typography and lettering but was not restricted by them. Temporal Typography Having established that temporal typography is it s own classification, in order to further understand its unique abilities, it is important for me to distinguish the classifications and terminology of this medium. Barbara Brownie writes about the

20 7 importance of classification in temporal typography, but she first acknowledges that Static typography has been thoroughly categorized. Existing classification systems provide typographers with valuable tools for understanding their medium, and a language with which artifacts and experiences of artifacts can be efficiently described. Furthermore, they allow analytical comparisons of each category. Indeed, Jonathan Hoefler (2001, p. 201) suggests that a universally applicable typeface classification system is a Holy Grail of typography. Existing classification systems differentiate between the various visual properties of typefaces, such as roman and sans serif typefaces. 2 I agree with Brownie that in order to further understand temporal typography, like print typography, it too needs classifications. With classifications of temporal typography, we can begin to make rules and further see the characteristics, properties and benefits of temporal typography. Existing taxonomies of typographic forms for the screen have been based on tradition of print typography. 3 Since animated typography is a newer discipline, there are no agreed upon definitions or particular terms to describe work in this medium. As such when practitioners talk about their work, vague and misleading language can be used. In Brownie s research she seeks to clarify and classify animated media and I use her terminology to help for clarify terms in my work. We know temporal is relating to time. So temporal typography is type that changes over time. I ve chosen to use the term temporal typography opposed to animated or kinetic because I view animated as too vague of a word when trying to understand moving and 2 Brownie, Transforming Type: New Directions in Kinetic Typography, ix 3 Ibid.

21 8 changing type. Temporal type is animated, and I use this word to describe the movement of temporal typography occasionally, but type changing over time is a more concise description that can have further categories and classifications. For instance, type that just scrolls along a page could be argued that it is not animated but simply moving left to right over time. As such, temporal typography covers any type of digital media appearing on screen from simply fading in to fading out. Brownie classifies temporal typography in an organized way (Figure A1). To best describe this, temporal typography has two subclassifications: serial presentation and kinetic. Serial presentation is type that appears in temporal medium but remains static. Kinetic typography can be any motion from basic scrolling to more complex transformation. Scrolling type (Figure A2) and dynamic layout (Figure A3) are global motions, meaning that they change location. Dynamic layout is when the words and letters are independent of one another and move within the space. Local kineticism is the opposite of global motions and has two subcategories as well: elastic and fluid typography. Elastic typography (Figure A4) is type that transforms over time but remains local in placement. The contours of the letterform are malleable but the form stays in one location during its change. Fluid typography is like elastic where the letterform is malleable but it also moves in position. There are three subcategories: metamorphosis, construction and revelation. Metamorphosis (Figure A5) is when a letterform evolves from a different form. Brownie states, the consequence of metamorphosis is that the original identity must be sacrificed in order to allow for another to emerge. 4 Construction (Figure A6) is a component collaborating in the construction of 4 Brownie, Transforming Type: New Directions in Kinetic Typography, 28

22 9 the whole letterform. This tends to start from the letterform being broken or segmented into parts and coming together at the end to reveal the whole letterform. Revelation (Figure A7) is when the components of a letterform exist but are hidden to the viewer initially. 5 So changing color, positioning of camera, or moving another element are types of revelation typography. Through the clarification of temporal typography terms, I am better able to describe my work and compare the effects of each moving component. 5 Ibid., xii

23 10 CHAPTER 4 DESIGNING TEMPORAL TYPOGRAPHY Before I even explored animated type, I wanted to get a better handle on motion and its ability to be more expressive than print medium. I first made four quick animated studies that represented the four basic emotions with which I was dealing. When I sketched these, the idea was to make them very geometric since letterforms are derived from basic shapes. However, moving into actual production of the animations, I decided to go more organic as I worked. At the time, I didn t realize how much this helped to do, but later in my process it helped me take the animated type further. This exercise helped me better understand motion and influenced how I would proceed to add motion to the letterforms. My happiness exercise (Figure A8) was basic shapes and I altered their position and pace to evoke happiness. Fear was the same as happiness; finding it easier to establish the emotion through pace and movement (Figure A9). When I approached my sad (Figure A10) and anger (Figure A11) exercises, this is when I decided a more organic quality would be better suited for these animations. I had anger represented by color and mark making and sadness was represented with the screen being filled with an organic form. Speed was an important variable to each of these animation exercises. Happiness changed according to placement of each element and what an element was doing; fear was a sporadic circle that moved quickly but paused in each position until finally quivering at a rapid pace in the corner; anger was not as fast as fear, but it too was achieved by quick sporadic lines; sadness set itself a part by the very slow nature of the figure. For the process of the type, I tentatively planned out ideas of motion for the

24 11 typefaces. Just like the exercises, I planned for Happy and Fear to be expressed through representation of shapes and movement. Then Sad and Angry were going to be represented through natural and organic mark making. I would not know the effectiveness until actually animating them, so I planned for an explorative process. Deciding on the typefaces was important before moving on. As mentioned previously, I had decided to select existing typefaces. As I continued into the process, I chose to modify typefaces or quickly develop ones based off existing typefaces that I thought were most representational of each emotion before being animated. For animation, I used Adobe After Effects. It was software that I was familiar with, but not a master at. I started with basic tests that were unrelated to my temporal typography project. These tests were based off the terminology of temporal typography (Figures A2 - A7). This helped two fold: better understanding and representing the terms as well as allowing me to gain further familiarity with the software. The other software available to focus on temporal typography is Cinema 4D. I decided against this software, as it is a three-dimensional animation program. Even though some animated letterforms could benefit from 3D treatment, starting in a two-dimensional realm would be the best method to understanding. When temporal typography is used in commercials or movies, it is mostly two-dimensional treatment and 3D type tends to be for specific reasons such as trying to fit into the environment. I had hopes of progressing to Cinema 4D but learning software, especially animation software, has a learning curve. After Effects allows me a friendlier program with a wide array of motion options and even a few three-dimensional ones.

25 12 As I continued designing each type, I ran into all the ways you could represent emotion, and started to question how far I wanted to distort the letterforms. My fear (Figure A12) type was a perfect example of this. This was a hard emotion to do, but I chose to animate a sans serif typeface with a dynamic layout. I did explorations of a quivering letterform, but I decided against it. I wanted the motion to be the reason the word may be ineligible and I didn t want to make this any harder by having an illegible letterform to start with. Overall, each type had a different process and technique that I believe became valuable in exploring the idea of motion. I enjoyed that one type took a more organic approach over the other as it allowed me to explore motion in different ways. In addition, I was able to focus more on representing expression in the place of elements opposed to distorting elements. Since each type was developed according with their own process, I will further layout the details of development of each set of temporal type. Happy Type Happy type was the first to be developed. For the choice of the typeface, I took inspiration from a display sans serif typeface called Gordon that I found from a book. I recreated this typeface in illustrator and animated it in After Effects. Gordon (Figure A13) was chosen for its rounded and thick letterforms. To me, this seemed like a characteristic of happiness. From my peers, there was some question about the typeface choice but the continual kinetic movement of the letterforms resolved it. When I had a terminal construction movement, the viewer was left with a stark contrast from happy to lifeless. Adding continual movement helped continue the emotion of the character and take away from the type choice.

26 13 The temporal motion in the Happy type is different from the others in that each letter has different movement for each letterform (Figure A14). I had the intentions of working in this way with the other sets but this treatment seemed to only work best with the Happy type. I used construction and a little bit of dynamic layout to emote feelings of happiness and construct the letterform. Taking shapes that move at a joyful pace, elements come together to make a letterform. Even though they are not consistent in their individual motions, the letterforms make a cohesive set from the consistent application of time and use of fluid typography. I started with the letter A and applied an unplanned intuitive construction movement. I was satisfied with how the A looked that I moved on to B and C. Again, I created different constructive motions to make the letterforms. Before I moved on, I tested the A, B and C together in a composition to see if there was a cohesion (Figure A15). I again was satisfied with the motion and emotion being conveyed that I finished the rest of the alphabet. From here, I put the set of letterforms in one composition to see how they worked together. The only criticism I received was the O. It was very sporadic in motion and it was restricted in its area that parts of the O would get cut off in motion, which did not add to the cohesion of the letterforms. After fixing the O, the letterforms flowed much better. When I first created the Happy temporal type, I had the motion come to a stop after the fluid temporal movement came together. From my peers, it was suggested that they should keep moving. At first I was set on legibility so I didn t want these to keep moving, but I was learning that the focus should be on the movement so I embraced the motion and

27 14 sought ways to keep the movement going. To keep things legible, but also have a more natural, happy movement to the letters, after the construction movement, I have the letterforms wiggle from side to side (Figure A16). In regards to keeping the motion continuing, it is like the aspect of lettering versus typography. When making a composition, I could explore further relationship and movements, but as far as creating a cohesive set, the best choice was to have a universal movement applied across each letter to keep the temporal type in kinetic motion. This would be like the idea of typography, where as if I wanted more dynamic continual kineticism, I would construct that with the relationship and positioning of each individual letter. This is a topic that will be addressed in Chapter 5. Sad Type Sad temporal type was the hardest category for me both conceptually and technically. I did the most amounts of tests for this category (Figure A17-A21); all evolving elastic typography and some had combinations of fluid typography. I wanted to explore changing baselines as well as getting fluid typography as a consistent element that could be applied to each letterform. However, I decided to go with the more symbolic representation of tears. Similar to the concept of my sad experimentation, the idea of tears is was not chosen for it s stereotypical subject matter, but I likened the movement and feel of water to the feeling of sadness; having the feeling of being overwhelmed and surrounded. Animating a water characteristic worked symbolically and representationally and I felt this was a good subject matter in exploring kineticism as I was able to mimick the slow tepid movement of water to create this sad yet beautiful emotion.

28 15 To do my tests, I used the letter A and applied the temporal quality to each. That is how I decided that the kinetic watercolor was the best effect for the letterforms. However, when receiving feedback from my peers, they agreed the kinetic watercolor was the best option but there was question if the quality of mark making was too dense and muddy. I took this suggestion and decided instead of using premade animated brushes, I would create my own type to add temporal behaviors. Based off the serif typeface Questa (Figure A22), I made a set of watercolor based letterforms. I chose Questa for it s unique take on a serif, it had complex characteristics that I thought would lend well to being filled with brush marks (Figure A23). The serifs had hard slab endings that could support a malleable contour opposed to a more delicate serif. In addition, I liked the un-even weights in the letterform. Even though I specified that creating a typeface was not important to this process, I do feel that choosing the right typeface that has close characteristics to the idea of your emotion or word helps. The idea of this project initially came from wanting to amplify the expressiveness and characteristics that type can have as a printed medium so I do care about the base of the typeface that I choose to animate. Once the letterforms were made, I scanned in my work at 600ppi for a good resolution quality; I then edited each letterform in Photoshop. Bringing my jpegs of the letterform into After Effects, I applied elastic temporal qualities to the letterforms. My process in the Happy typeface was used here as well, starting with A. This allowed me to figure out the effects of how to go about applying kinetic motion optimally. I continued onto B and C and put the ABC s (Figure A24) together to see if my animations had merit. As mentioned, unlike Happy, I decided upon a bleed transition that I would apply to all letterforms. However, the way each watercolor mark bleeds in is different for each letter

29 16 as I thought too uniformed of a repetition would be aesthetically unpleasing. I then moved onto completing the letterforms and evaluating all in a separate composition, making edits and finalizing (Figure A25). Angry Type The Angry type typeface is a sans-serif typeface that was created in Adobe Illustrator with the pen tool (Figure A26). I wanted the letterforms to be very thin and have a line quality to them. To me, the thin sharp lines of the typeface lend itself to an angry characteristic. This temporal type was coincidently closest to my angry animation exercise. I thought mimicking the speed and line qualities someone angrily scribbling was a good representation of anger. The temporal quality the Angry typeface (Figure A27) has was metamorphosis as the line changed over time to construct the letterform and used elastic typography of the letterforms shivering for the continual motion. For the process, not only was the type created in Illustrator but I also pre-made each individual scribble on top of the letterform in Illustrator to animate in After Effects (Figure A28). Once done, I animated the lines that I created and had the A appear of the scribble animation. From there, I used the effects in After Effects to make the quivering effect (Figure A29). Like previous temporal type, I continued with the A and ABC method (Figure A30). Of the four temporal type created, this is probably the most uniform in motion. I questioned if this benefited the effect or not. I found it interesting how on emotion or movement can be successful with more uniform and repetitive qualities where as the Happy temporal type would not be so effective if it was constructed in the same way like the Angry type. As for the why of this insight, I do not have an official answer but I would observe that it could be the general emotion lends itself well to repetition but also

30 17 the line and mark making that is made is more forgiving and appealing to be repeated, like a pattern. It is my belief that if Happy letterforms broke apart and assembled consistently throughout, it would be too much motion for the viewer to appreciate what was happening. Fear Type Fear s typeface was a sans-serif called Bebas (Figure A31). The features of this typeface that attracted me to be a good base for emoting fear was the neo-grotesk quality of the letterforms being consistent throughout. Bebas also is very elongated in height yet thick in stroke width. This contrast of characteristics seemed like it would be a good characteristic for fear. It was bold and the neo-grotesk characteristic made it very legible in a haunting way. It is important for me to clarify that when expressing fear, I wanted to get as close to how humans realistically process and experience fear and not fear that you might associate with horror movies or Halloween. I mention this because when asking for feedback from peers in my beginning stages, I would receive feedback such as it should look more gory, or try a scarier typeface. As I developed more of the temporal qualities in all the letterforms and had them in implemented compositions, this temporal type seemed to be a favorite among my peers. I believe this is to due in part by its non-obvious representation of fear. The kinetic motion of the Fear temporal type (Figure A12) is different in that all three temporal types were animated through local kineticism but Fear used a simpler kinetic motion of dynamic layout from the global motion category. I had the letterform simply change size and position in a sporadic quality. Even though it was the simplest to execute technically, it actually is the least legible of the four temporal types that I created. Since Bebas was a pre existing typeface, I went straight into After Effects and

31 18 simply typed each letterform and proceeded to animate its positioning and size. Again, I followed the A and ABC (Figure A32) technique to ensure cohesiveness and continued on to the finish the set. The continuing kinetic motion is consistent throughout, unlike Happy and Angry where you are presented with one form of kinetic typography but then it changes to another. The other unique quality of the Fear typeface is that unlike the other three where it starts off distorted or comes into view through motion, this type starts off clear and legible and then receives its motion becoming illegible. Sad type has this quality as well, to distort further from the letterform overtime, however the way it was constructed, it remains legible throughout all stages of its motion. Color Choice My initial intention was to create these four sets of temporal type in black to have the focus be on the motion, but since After Effects is not easy to change properties like other software, I decided to use colors that we associate to each emotion: happy orange; sad blue; anger red; fear black. In my implementation series, I do alter color, which then alters the classification of the happy type to also incorporate revelation motion.

32 19 CHAPTER 5 IMPLEMNTATION Once the temporal types were complete, I was eager to experiment with each letterform and observe how they would function together. I put them into words and phrases that best exemplified the emotion (Figures A33 - A40) and then I put them into phrases that contradicted with their emotions (Figures A41 - A48). I received feedback from my peers that the typefaces functioned well in showing their emotion and it was evident when tested with the non-related words and phrases. I was told that they would seem off and not as pleasing as the phrases that went with the emotion. I even took these out of their temporal context into printed medium for the viewer to appreciate the time based process and interaction. This was well received in enjoying the expressive qualities of each temporal type. After the basic implementation compositions, I decided to create original and experimental compositions (Figures A49 Figure A52) altering color choices, combining the different sets of type into one and bringing in other elements as well, to see how the letters compete with figure-ground relationships as well as the different motions. With these experimental compositions, I also applied music to each. Even though I have not covered the impact of sound and motion to further compression in visual communication, it was a good beginning to start exploring how these temporal letterforms worked with music that related to the emotion. This is an important distinction to implement the temporal type in both a simplistic approach and an experimental approach. In Chapter 4, subsection Happy Type, the importance of the logistics of continual or terminal kinetic motion was talked about. In the

33 20 nature of creating these temporal types like typefaces, I am convinced that continual kinetic motion is not as successful as creating the continual kinetic motion in relationship to its surroundings, placement and content. As such, I was able to alter the continual motion to be more organic and aesthetically pleasing opposed to the forced nature of the continual motion in the creation of the temporal type.

34 21 CHAPTER 6 LEGIBILITY The reason for exploring temporal typography was to discover its benefits and place in digital media. Existing animated types exist and through commercials and title sequences, the viewer appreciates the kinetic enjoyment of kinetic typography. Even though kinetic typography has its merit in design, I acknowledge that is not a good platform for every aspect of visual communication. A comment from a peer had me questioning the concept of my work; mentioning that these could be distracting and hard to read. Indeed this was an accurate observation but through research, I came to accept this as insightful and not necessarily critical. In fact Brownie summarizes my opinions about the discussion of legibility by stating There has been extensive discourse in the field of typography concentrating on legibility, punctuated in the late 1920s by the prioritization of legibility in Jan Tschichold s Modernist manifesto, The New Typography (1998 [1928]), and Beatrice Warde s Crystal Goblet Typography (1930). The issue of legibility again became a popular topic of debate in the 1990s, following David Carson s questioning of the communicative value of legibility when compared to the other expressive possibilities of typography (Pipes, 2005, p. 168). One May expect, therefore, discussions of any new typographic medium to inevitably turn to the question of legibility. 6 In fact, I knew legibility would be an issue and topic of discussion. This was one of the factors that hindered initial progress, being timid to cross the lines of illegibility. Typography mostly aimed at making reading easier and modernist designers placed legibility high on their agenda; however, postmodernists rebelled against the functionalists 6 Brownie, Transforming Type: New Directions in Kinetic Typography, 49

35 22 principle. In addition, those who argued against the modernist emphasis on legibility often failed to give reasoning for their visual solutions. 7 Knowing that there has been discussion and debate on the importance of legibility has kept me motivated in the merit of my work and research as well as trying to give reasoning for my intuitive experimentations. The postmodernist designers often relied on their intuition, which made their practice inexplicable. I am guilty of working intuitively, but I seek to find explanations to argue the benefits that pushing the boundaries of illegibility and expression can bring. This has helped me put my work into reasoning and has brought insight into discovering more about temporal typography. In Matthias Hillner s book Basics Typography 01: Virtual Typography he argues the importance of temporal typography to help be the solution to better communication in the age of being bogged down by a mass amount of information. Hillner specifically states computer networks connect people from different parts of the world. Today, this is done so efficiently that people are often left with little time to contemplate the information that is conveyed. Due to the information overload that results from the growing accessibility of information, visual perception is largely reduced to the registration of data. But information that is merely recognized as such does not communicate. People need time to reflect on the information in order to generate an understanding, and they need to be given time to depict its visual presentation in order to appreciate its aesthetic appearance. Where information cascades, people can no longer appreciate the process of reading. The aesthetic pleasure is undermined by the time pressure. Virtual typography, as we shall see, may help to counteract this problem. 8 As far as legibility of my work and temporal typography as a medium in general, 7 Hillner, Basics Typography 01: Virtual Typography, 50 8 Hillner, Basics Typography 01: Virtual Typography, 34

36 23 the more a form fluctuates such as in fluid typography, its legibility fluctuates as well. Any letterform, which undergoes change, will become easier or more difficult to read as it becomes malleable. However, I do not feel that this is a negative quality, especially when being used in digital media. Hillner brings up an important distinction that we should think of virtual typography as information that is nearly or virtually typographical, rather than defining virtual typography simply as computer-generated type. 9 What Hillner means by this is temporal or virtual typography does not operate on the borderline of legibility like postmodern typography. Instead, temporal typography or virtual typography as Hillner calls it, challenges the viewer during the recognition stage that precedes the reading process. 10 I agree with Hillner that to relieve any bias on temporal or virtual typography, we have to understand that it is actually not typographical in the way we know and understand print typography but it is virtual, and an image. We view temporal typography, we do not necessarily read it. Looking at this in the way of viewing can help us better take time to appreciate the information that is presented to us. For example, creating a medium where we read/view typographic forms changing over time, it slows down the process of reading as it is not necessarily beneficial to read at a fast pace. As Hillner says If we can argue that the pace of reading relates to the reader s memorization of text, then we may assume that reading at a slow pace makes text information more memorable. 11 In fact, the second generation of modernists as Hillner 9 Hillner, Basics Typography 01: Virtual Typography, Ibid. 11 Ibid., 40

37 24 says understood functionalism in the conventional, pragmatic sense 12 where the purpose behind typography was to deliver information quickly and efficiently. The aspect of aesthetic pleasure was considered to be secondary. Some modernist movements including Dadaism and Futurism contradicted this, which was inspiration for my work in exploring expressive typography. I feel we still are fueled behind delivering quick and efficient information, but we should recognize that emotive characteristics of typographic work affect the way typographic information is perceived by the recipient. 12 Ibid.,28

38 25 CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION: FUTURE RESEARCH AND INQUIRY The motivation for my MFA work started with me being interested in expressive typography. I felt my work lacked expressiveness and passion and I knew that these were important in communication even though it has been argued throughout design history. As my work evolved, I did discover the merit in temporal typography, especially with the advancements of technology. Not only can temporal typography help with expressiveness but it can also help us comprehend information better in a generation and society where it is starting to be overlooked because of the mass amount that is available to us. As designers we must evolve with the times and seek to find ways to communicate within our society. For me, this has opened me up to further possibilities in research. I would like to explore further methods of motion, as I know I have only scratched the surface. In addition, I would like to become part of the research that helps classify temporal typography even further, although I felt Brownie s research was very thorough and helpful, there are still holes in classifying temporal typography. It is important to learn from the postmodernists that instead of intuitively engaging in unknown and practical mediums, we need to bring insight and meaning. There are many practitioners in kinetic typography, but it is intuitive which can bring a false appreciation to the medium and become one that does not last. However, it should be something that we as designers build from because there is merit to temporal typography. Time magazine has started to bring kinetic motion to their covers in their ebooks and more identities are becoming kinetic to accommodate the fact that they are placed in digital areas such as web. Kinetic typography draws attention to the

39 26 viewer and can help us further appreciate the information that is presented to us. I plan on expanding my research into temporal typography in the future, examining psychological reasons why temporal typography may help us process information better. It is assumed and proven through experimentation but research could be pushed further to prove the benefits of this medium. In addition, I would like to expand my expertise to other software such as Cinema 4D and Maya to explore other forms of motion and virtual typography. Digital devices are becoming ubiquitous to our society and they are even being used as learning tools in schools, possibly replacing books. I don t know if this is necessarily a benefit but as designers we should seek to adapt to the future but be informed by the past. As such, we can use temporal type as a strong visual communicative tool. I want to become a strong practitioner in motion graphics and temporal typography as well as adding to the research and techniques. I would like to continue to discover temporal typography for attention techniques and continue to prove that digital typography can help us better understand information in the age of technology where are overloaded with information. Even though I have proven this in my thesis, I know I have only scratched the surface in research and work.

40 APPENDIX 27

41 28 temporal typography serial presentation kinetic typography global motion local kineticism scrolling typography dynamic layout elastic typography fluid typography metamorphosis construction revelation construction through motion of parts construction by parallax revelation by color orillumination revelation by rotation or navigation Figure A1. Diagram of Kinetic Classification

42 Figure A2. Scrolling Type Exercise 29

43 Figure A3. Dynamic Layout Exercise 30

44 Figure A4. Elastic Typography Exercise 31

45 Figure A5. Metamorphosis Exercise 32

46 Figure A6. Construction Exercise 33

47 Figure A7. Revelation Exercise 34

48 Figure A8. Happiness Exercise Animation 35

49 Figure A9. Fear Exercise Animation 36

50 Figure A10. Sad Exercise Animation 37

51 Figure A11. Anger Exercise Animation 38

52 Figure A12. Fear Temporal Type, Whole Alphabet 39

53 Figure A13. Gordon Typeface 40

54 Figure A14. Happy Temporal Type, Whole Alphabet 41

55 Figure A15. Happy Temporal Type, ABC 42

56 Figure A16. Happy Temporal Type, Wiggle 43

57 Figure A17. Sad Temporal Type Possibility #1 44

58 Figure A18. Sad Temporal Type Possibility #2 45

59 Figure A19. Sad Temporal Type Possibility #3 46

60 Figure A20. Sad Temporal Type Possibility #4 47

61 Figure A21. Sad Temporal Type Possibility #5 48

62 49 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Figure A22. Questa Typeface

63 Figure A23. Sad Typeface Watercolor 50

64 Figure A24. Sad Temporal Type, ABC 51

65 Figure A25. Sad Temporal Type, Whole Alphabet 52

66 Figure A26. Angry Typeface 53

67 Figure A27. Angry Temporal Type, Whole Alphabet 54

68 Figure A28. Angry Scribbled Typeface 55

69 Figure A29. Angry Temporal Type, ABC 56

70 Figure A30. Angry Temporal Type, Quiver 57

71 58 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Figure A31. Bebas Typeface

72 Figure A32. Fear Temporal Type, ABC 59

73 Figure A33. Happy Temporal Type Word Test 60

74 Figure A34. Happy Temporal Type Phrase Test 61

75 Figure A35. Sad Temporal Type Word Test 62

76 Figure A36. Sad Temporal Type Phrase Test 63

77 Figure A37. Fear Temporal Type Word Test 64

78 Figure A38. Fear Temporal Type Phrase Test 65

79 Figure A39. Angry Temporal Type Word Test 66

80 Figure A40. Angry Temporal Type Phrase Test 67

81 Figure A41. Happy Temporal Type Opposite Word Experiment Test 68

82 Figure A42. Happy Temporal Type Opposite Phrase Experiment Test 69

83 Figure A43. Sad Temporal Type Opposite Word Experiment Test 70

84 Figure A44. Sad Temporal Type Opposite Phrase Experiment Test 71

85 Figure A45. Fear Temporal Type Opposite Word Experiment Test 72

86 Figure A46. Fear Temporal Type Opposite Phrase Experiment Test 73

87 Figure A47. Angry Temporal Type Opposite Word Experiment Test 74

88 Figure A48. Angry Temporal Type Opposite Phrase Experiment Test 75

89 Figure A49. Happy Experimental Composition 76

90 Figure A50. Sad Experimental Composition 77

91 Figure A51. Fear Experimental Composition 78

92 Figure A52. Angry Experimental Composition 79

93 80 Bibliography Betancourt, Michael The History of Motion Graphics From Avant-Garde to Industry in the United States. Wildside Press. Brownie, Barbara Transforming Type New Directions in Kinetic Typography. Bloomsbury Academic. Carter, Rob & Meggs Philip B. & Day, Ben & Maxa, Sandra & Sanders, Mark Typographic Design Form and Communication. New Jersey: Wiley. Dodd, Robin From Gutenberg to Opentype. Vancouver: Hartley & Marks Publishers Inc. Hillner, Matthias. Basics Typography 01: Virtual Typography Fairchild Books. Lupton, Ellen Type on Screen. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Willen, Bruce & Strals, Nolen Lettering & Type. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.