Solis: North by Northwest

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jIlqatMQSgI

The title sequence for Alfred Hitchcock's, North by Northwest, designed by Saul Bass, is a great example of kinetic typography. The sequence begins with a series of lines that form an angled type of grid on which the type, that is slanted to fit the grid, falls on to. The white sans serif type, which is possibly Grotesque MT Std., either moves from the bottom up or the top down, stopping about half away down the screen, before continuing on its way to make room for more type. By incorporating a thick white bar that moves either proceeding the type or following it, Mr. Bass suggests an elevator system, and this becomes more clear as the grid fades away to reveal a real shot of a skyscraper, of which the grid made up the windows of the structure. The hierarchy of the type is clear as the sequence goes on as well, beginning with larger type for the starring roles and becoming gradually smaller for the smaller roles and assisting parts. This treatment of the type and the clean type face work together with the music to emphasize the movie that is to come, about a New York business man, hence the skyscraper, who is moving about to get away from a bad group of people who mistake him for someone else, which I personally find explains the sudden up and down elevator type movement. Its clear why Mr. Bass' clean type treatment is the inspiration for many other kinetic type treatments, like Catch Me If You Can. I really enjoy this title sequence for its simple but hugely effective treatment of type to portrait a larger message that still engages but doesn't lose the viewer with a lot of movement. I'm constantly looking for examples to of type that is minimal...but not... boring, I find myself often more drawn to tight typefaces and type treatments that stay simple and true to itself without a lot of gimmicks. I feel like this is a sequence that I will frequently return to when trying to put together a lot of type in a clean and simple way, maybe for future book covers as well, I could have used this for the last book cover in Type I.