Messaging and the use of emoticons

Lee et al. state that text alone and its form does not readily support expressing emotion, and with email and text messaging becoming the dominant form of communication, some emotion gets lost along the way and messages can be interpreted in the wrong way. Emoticons is one way to respond to the need to express one’s emotional state, however, there are limitations to this, certain elements are missing such as tone of voice or the intensity of the emotion. Sometimes several emoticons are used together or an overuse of exclamation marks used instead.

Saul Bass - Film Title Sequences

Saul Bass, most famous for his work on corporate logos, posters but particularly his innovative work on title sequences for films such as The Man with the Golden Arm, North by Northwest and Psycho. Before the 1950’s, title sequences were generally static and separate from the movie but Bass decided to try to visualise what the movie was about and evoke the essence of the story with his titles. This is something I would like to create for readers who read on screen, an introductory piece of text to set the mood or the theme of the text to follow.

Opening credits, typography and rhythm

I’m finding the final project a little daunting so to ease myself into the day I looked at clips of opening sequences to films and TV programmes. Typography has been used on screen for intertitles as well as credits and can often set the tone of the film/show when used correctly. Some of the best film credits that I’ve seen are in Dr. Strangelove, Catch Me If You Can and Juno. One TV opening sequence that I think has worked well is the opening sequence to True Blood, not so much for the use of typography but for the music and use of imagery. Other interesting shows include Twilight Zone, Downton Abbey, Star Trek and Mad Men. The use of type and where it is placed alludes to how the story to follow might unfold. Timing and rhythm is another area that I will have to study.

http://www.creativebloq.com/typography/10-great-uses-typography-movies-10134995

Kinedit and Codepen

After reading a journal on the use of effective messaging using dynamic text, I thought more about how the idea of creating a website using kinetic typography would differ from an animation. The Kinedit system created by Forlizzi et al., is a basic authoring tool that allows users to input text and animate specific segments and reuse effects.  Forlizzi’s article provided some good insights into kinetic text. Kinedit seems to be more specific to text alone with a comparison to how a designer uses After Effects and Kinedit. While I do not intend to create a program like Kinedit, I would like the user to have the ability to interact with the text in some way, either by mouse movement, swiping or with the use of sliders or buttons. I began to search how some text effects have been created  using the HTML5 canvas and came across this motion graphic typeface http://codepen.io/ara_node/pen/nuJCG which displays some amazing text effects using HTML, CSS & Javascript.

Kinetic Typography

Kinetic typography is the art of expression with animated text. Similar to the study of traditional typography of designing static typographic forms (http://johnnylee.net/kt/). I will be looking at typography and layout and how these elements offer more flexibility to storytelling and can add to literature, the same way that visuals can add to a music performance. The aim is to enjoy language, using typography and design. Stephen Fry gives an excellent account on language http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY and Thibault de Fournas has created a beautiful animation on the evolution of type from Paper to Screen http://vimeo.com/69375692

Experimenting with fonts

I played around with various fonts from DaFont.com to give meaning to words and to convey meaning before the word is even decoded

Ideas for the final project - From print to digital

When trying to write my agreement form for my final project, I researched areas I’ve always found interesting such as layout, design and typography as well as user experience design and information architecture. My background is mainly in print and this has inspired me to explore the possibilities that the web and eBooks offer to readers of printed material. How can their experience be enhanced by technology without disrupting the emotional and psychological associations created by printed materials?

Fully Booked: Ink On Paper dives into book covers design with examples from Carolie Brickford Smith with her Clothbound Classics Series. Fully Booked displays fantastic examples of printed book covers, which could be transferred to screen, to specific extracts of the book to enhance the eReaders experience. Ellen Lupton, in Thinking with Type, describes how technology shapes the design of typographic space with the flexibility and constraints offered by digital media. Typography can give language a physical body and therefore enable the authors message to be described in the way they visualise it.