Synopses & Reviews
Transforming Type examines kinetic, or moving type, in a range of fields including film, television, typographic animation, and motion graphics, with examples including film and television title sequences, television idents, advertising, interactive poetry and experimental animation. Barbara Brownie addresses different kinds of kineticism and the issues that arise when type transforms itself, challenging the boundaries between type and image. She explores the extent to which existing typography theory can be applied to kinetic media, and attempts to provide a new typology of kinetic typography, enabling readers to define and describe contemporary practice.
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Barbara Brownie is a senior lecturer in visual communication and the online co-ordinator at the School of Creative Arts, University of Hertfordshire, UK. She has edited two collections of contemporary typographic work, Type Image (2011) and Type Object (2013). She has published articles in The Journal of Media Practice and Fusion and contributed to Writing Design, edited by Grace Lees-Maffei (Bloomsbury, 2011).
Table of Contents
Part 1: Mapping the Field: Categories of Kineticism
Chapter 1: What is Kineticism?Chapter 2: Global v. Local Perception, and the problem with Global BiasChapter 3: Local Kineticism and Fluctuating Identity Part 2: Issues in Transforming Typography
Chapter 4: Illusory Space: The Page and Screen as a Virtual EnvironmentChapter 5: Legibility and Asemisis in Fluid Typography Part 3: Case Studies
Chapter 6: Fluid Branding: Channel 4 and its imitators
Chapter 7: Telling Titles: The credit sequences of Kyle Cooper and his peersChapter 8: Visual Poetry
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix