Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Experimental Typography: Type in Motion

I am starting to question why a typeface seems to have to exist in print, why can't a typeface only exist and/or work in motion. I am basing this theory off of the idea of a thaumatrope. I created one last class in which the letter form does not work in print, but it works as the letter "m" when the thaumatrope is spun. It successfully only works in motion.
After thinking about that, I realized that the flat two sides of the thaumatrope are like frames. I then thought of a stop motion where I can create my own frames, but in each frame only a part of a letter form would exist. So, it would be impossible to even pause the stop-motion and be able to see a letter form. It would only work in motion. My typeface would be meant for very specific motion related artifacts.

I have found some examples that are stop-motions. They give me some interesting ideas.

>>>Constructivist Type in Motion<<<

>>>Candle Stop Motion with Vh1<<<

>>>Post-it Stop Motion, with some great moving typography<<<

Even on this last image the user is able to pause the movie and still see letter forms. I don't want this to be possible. I would create a letter form part by part so that the letter form would not work even if the user paused the video. Each frame will move extremely fast, so 60 frames per second would create a "thaumatrope" effect with stop-motion.

I also like the idea of setting up some sort of grid using objects like candles or post-its. This makes it much more feasible to create part of a letter form for each frame. I am brainstorming some objects that would make the typeface interesting. I need to experiment with many though so that I can achieve something compelling.

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