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Since the early 20th century type has urged to break free from the printed constraints of its page. The Futurist movement encouraged the portrayal of speed, motion and dynamism in typography as a new visual language, liberating text from its original boundaries.

The style was revolutionary from most typographical publications previous with its use of varied angles, alternating sizes and typeface combinations – accentuating the futurists’ vigorous energy and artistic ideals.

This dynamic visual form was further adopted through propaganda posters of the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The constructivist style used alternating angles contrasted with clear, powerful type.

These design techniques instilled life in the type and emotion into the words, promoting activism and enthusiasm the material was attempting to encourage. The energetic aesthetic of the text invoked motion into the imagery and life into the overall piece.

 

After much varied experimentation in design for print, only through modern film production techniques did true motion typography finally come to fruition. Frame by frame ‘stop-motion’ animation in title sequences, notably Saul Bass’s iometric gridded opening of North by Northwest, finally gave typography it’s opportunity of temporal movement. Letters and words were able to move through both time and space, promising endless opportunities of animation styles.

The evolution of kinetic typography has prospered ever since, with particular development in the late 1990s due to widely available technology and software accessibility. Facilities enabled cinematography-esque camera movements such as pans and zoom used in combination with animation techniques such as rotations and scales. These uses of basic kinetics can still be widely found today in more simple motion graphics such as website banners or public signage displays, where text is given a 'dynamic grammar' (Ikonen, 2003) and opportunities of new visual languages and emphasis arise.

 

Kinetics is important in typography for motion graphics for 2 reasons:

 

 

 

 

 

"in a time-based medium, type has additional expressive qualities, additional layers of significance" Michael Worthington

 

The effects of high quality kinetic typography:

EMPHASIS EMOTION ENGAGEMENT EXPRESSION

Not only are the effects applicable to the visual of the type, but they often apply to the meaning of the words, going beyond purely aesthetic and emphasizing the purpose and message of the subject. Solely through the animation of type can these factors take effect. Type is given the opportunity to perform and communicate it's idea further.

Move the mouse over the words to see the effect:

 

More advanced typography kinetics can involve manipulation of individual letterforms, transforming their shape and design.

This technique allows morphing of the figure, deforming its dimensions and lines to take a counterform potentially conveying a message or emotion. Letters can morph from or into any shape, and even reform as different letterforms.

This style requires a more artistic and technical ability and allows a surrealistic aesthetic to be applied, or a dynamism to match background footage or music.

 

 

 

This extreme manipulation of text raises the issue of what skill sets are required to create effective motion graphics using text?

Typography was traditionally a highly trained skill – educated typographers would intricately design typefaces with detailed shapes, lines and angles. Typesetters would then arrange spacing, leading and kerning for what was often permanent single-applications such as a printing-press or stonemasonry. This required a high attention to detail to be paid to all these aspects so as to produce typography that was technically correct and visually purposeful.

The modern commercialization of software availability enables any proficient computer user to attempt creation of typography and motion graphics, without prior design training in any relevant discipline. Motion graphics can be created by designers with no previous training in typography, and are unaware therefore of key principles of visual communication necessary. Conversely a trained typographer may have very little awareness of animation or cinematography principles.

Motion graphics utilising kinetic typography design therefore requires a combination of skill sets from the fields of graphic design, animation and cinematography. We may also consider art, illustration and 3D, depending on the deliverable style. Traditionally these were all separatist disciplines with clear boundaries and only in the late 20th century began to weave, fuelled by the development and expansion of digital media and the motion graphics industry.

This combination of high quality discipline-specific executions combined can be seen in this video example.

For much modern day amateur and professional video, some element of typography is necessary to help tell the story.

As with such a high level of cinematography in this video, the inclusion of basic or below-standard typography design has the potential to seriously undermine the final aesthetic of the piece.

High quality kinetic type designed with sympathy to the existing footage (mood, shot style and colour amongst others) is essential in completing a visually and emotionally effective final piece.

 

The design of fonts must also be considered throughout motion graphics design, in particular the remediation of typefaces. Many fonts original purpose was print or web, and very rarely animation.

For example, Times New Roman – originally designed in 1932 for the Times newspaper, its design was focused on print legibility, ease of reading and compatibility with the printing press. Motion graphics using kinetic typography utilises the font in methods never imaginable in its original conception, therefore designers must consider how its typographical properties affect animation possibilities.  For instance its serifs, which were originally designed for ease of reading large text bodies at small size, may be redundant in animation other than adding an aesthetic edge if desired.

In contrast, fonts designed for web such as Verdana (released 1996) have a sans-serif design friendlier to short sentences and single words, which results in them being more receptive to animation.

These comments are font-specific - often traditional typography rules do not apply in typography, as it opens up a world of possibilities with text animation and transformation.

"dynamic typography, by its very nature, negates many principles that can be applied to static typography" Heidi Specht

This fusion of industries gives rise to the opportunity for new techniques in font design and arrangement, both accentuating the old and promoting the new.

 

Pure Kinetic Typography

A modern style of motion graphics that has emerged is of pure kinetic typography, without use of other video or design elements. Increasingly used to explain issues or tell stories, it acts almost as a modern designer's Powerpoint, with the ability to capture and sustain viewer attention.

In its most basic state, its often used for poems or song lyrics. Simple text visuals combined with animation little more complex than some of the earliest motion graphics keep the attention of the viewer exponentially more than static text. It mimics a natural reading style, easing the viewer through the visual experience. This technique has given rise to a new medium of infographic animations, through combinations of sound, graphics and animation.

This popular example demonstrates how animated typography can convey large amounts of serious information while absorbing the viewer in both its visual design and the meaning behind the words. It is easily understandable, explanatory and friendly, while remaining accessible to all. Real and often challenging issues can be addressed without use of sombre videos or sales-pitch type portraits.

These topics would struggle to be projected to such a wide audience would it not be for their quirky, informal style. If for example the similar script were made into a motion graphic without use of such animated typography it is unlikely it would reach such a wide audience.

 

 

This technique is not always used to address serious issues - in contrast this video shows the style applied to song lyrics. The flow of the song lyrics are emphaized by the rolling effect of type in the video.

Notably the primary design and flow of the piece is around the kinetic typography, with the artist providing only additional visuals. This example is an evolution of the style of many of the videos viewable on the Vimeo Kinetic Typography Channel (see footer link).

 

 

This final video example is an example of how typography principles have been translated into modern cinematography, where actual letterforms are crafted as physical objects and manipulated on their stage. It is worth arguing that this is most definately a form of 'motion graphics', despite the lack of CG elements. The widespread use of CG kinetic typography has potentially instilled a fine-art ideal resulting in a piece which is both fascinating and appeals to viewers traditional artistic emotion.

The developments discussed in the motion graphics industry and associated fields have resulted in an extremely high standard in todays professional work. The use of kinetic typography has been instrumental in ensuring a cohesive aesthetic and through its temporal animation, has instilled expression and emotion in the words featured.

Current trends such as fully interactive websites and computer games immerse the viewer in arrays of animation, video, audio and text. Kinetic typography is and will continue to be essential in completing this jigsaw of different mediums, furthermore through development in motion graphics techniques and the digital media industries.