Transforming Type

Description

Transforming Type examines kinetic or moving type in a range of fields including film credits, television idents, interactive poetry and motion graphics. As the screen increasingly imitates the properties of real-life environments, typographic sequences are able to present letters that are active and reactive. These environments invite new discussions about the difference between motion and change, global and local transformation, and the relationship between word and image. In this illuminating study, Barbara Brownie explores the ways in which letterforms transform on screen, and the consequences of such transformations. Drawing on examples including Kyle Cooper's title sequence design, kinetic poetry and MPC's idents for the UK's Channel 4, she differentiates motion from other kinds of kineticism, with particular emphasis on the transformation of letterforms into other forms and objects, through construction, parallax and metamorphosis. She proposes that each of these kinetic behaviours requires us to revisit existing assumptions about the nature of alphabetic forms and the spaces in which they are found. FC ......Page 1 Half title......Page 2 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 List of illustrations......Page 8 Towards a classification of temporal typography......Page 10 A note on terminology......Page 14 PART ONE Mapping the field: Categories of kineticism......Page 16 Typography in temporal media......Page 18 Serial presentation......Page 21 Scrolling typography......Page 22 Dynamic layout......Page 26 Kinetic typography: Motion and change......Page 29 Global displacement and local kineticism......Page 32 Elasticity or transformation......Page 34 Fluid typography......Page 38 Metamorphosis......Page 41 Construction......Page 43 Revelation......Page 47 A note on false fluidity......Page 49 PART TWO Issues in transforming typography......Page 52 Construction in three-dimensional space......Page 54 Revelation in three-dimensional objects......Page 57 Legibility at the poles of transformation......Page 64 A temporal relationship between word and image......Page 66 Fluctuating legibility and asemisis......Page 68 Asemisis and the search for new knowledge......Page 70 Interactivity and reactivity......Page 74 Generative typography: The next step in reactivity......Page 77 PART THREE Case studies......Page 80 Martin Lambie Nairn and new forms of kinetic branding......Page 82 Modularity and text/image relationships in the Channel 4 logo......Page 84 Masquerade and illusion......Page 86 Influence......Page 88 Ident families......Page 89 Bridging the gap between typography and film......Page 92 Overlaying and integration......Page 94 Kyle Cooper and text/image relationships......Page 96 Temporal poetry and the static page......Page 100 Kineticism as performance......Page 103 Fluidity in holopoetry......Page 105 Kineticism elsewhere......Page 108 Appendix: Categories of Temporal Typography......Page 112 Notes......Page 114 Bibliography......Page 118 Index......Page 126 Plates ......Page 128