Nathan Hostick- Art Exhibition finds...

The first Exhibition I chose was The Art of Albert Pailey. The book was approximately 10" wide by 12" high. The book was mostly black and white photos, and type, and a few pages used color. The book was divided into chapters. Each chapter explored a different sculpture technique or idea.  The type used a similar structure throughout the book, very simple and clean.  They used bold sans-serif for most headers, and a basic serif type for the body copy.

The next exhibition I chose was 44 Modern Japanese Print Artists.  It was approximately 12" by 12" in size.  It was a beautiful, full color book.  The way it was layed out (as seen above) there was a few page write up on an artist, then the following several pages were color photos of their prints.  It followed this format for all 44 artists.  The type was very simple and to the point (serif).

The next book I checked out was Korean folk art and craft. It was approximately 8" by 11" in size. It was a great full color book with not only beautiful artwork, but a great deal of information, all handled with beautiful type. The book was in English, but there were several pieces that had Korean titles, which were also translated in English.  The book generally showed several works per spread, and had short write ups on each at the bottom of the page.  The book was divided into sections, such as: paintings, sculpture, prints, masks, ect.

I feel that looking at several exhibition books is a great source of inspiration, and will definitely benefit the design work done on project #2.  Seeing all of these beautiful books really motivates me to start the next project. My library visit really got my mind running with ideas for my exhibition.

Cats and Blogs-Steph Dorazio

This book is named 50 Years of Movie Posters by John Kobal, with the introduction by David Robinson. The book contains several (actual) movie/film poster designs from the 1920s to the late 1950s. The designs have the aesthetic of the artistic era that is dominant at the time of the film's release. The predominant object in the majority of the posters are the figure(s) and typography. The early posters contain handdrawn type in various positions in the composition. Most of the people look happy or are smiling. The text is in the intro and on the posters. The poster designs, as a whole, seem to have a similar look and direction. The use of photography and photocopied type, transitions the poster designs to have an appearance that looks more "realistic" than previous designs. The book is (roughly) 11.5"x17".

In this book, Gustav Klimt's work is highlighted. Sketches and rough drafts are also present. His paintings include portraits and landscapes. The work appears to be impressionist. The typography for the title is sans-serif, and dominant in size and position. The paper weight on every page is heavier than most books and the color copies are rich and vibrant. The size of the book is (roughly) 12"x16.5".

This book is named the Tale of Genji Scroll from 1971 by Ivan Morris, with the into by Yoshinobu Tokugawa. This book comes in a box, and to open the contents of the book, the box cover has to come off. The box is burnt orange and made from canvas material. The cover combines further textiles of different colors and texture. The inside typography describes the painting (usually it is found on the left of most page spreads). The paintings have similar looking color schemes, or are prints of old paintings. The typography looks Japanese and is vertically rendered (as opposed to the English horizontal position). The paintings are not imbedded into the print, but are glued on the page. Multiple artist are credited with the internal examples of art.

Catalog // Stevie Sharp

 

 

                     

All photos were taken by Stevie Sharp

I found three catalogs that were all very different in size, content, and design. The first catalog is the biggest one of the bunch called, Andy Warhol "Giant" size. The book was authored by a large group of people. The book was roughly 15x25 inches in size and was about 2.5 inches thick. The catalog was very heavy based, almost like a scrapbook with only minimal text. Most of the text was quotes from Andy Warhol in a round-serifed typeface. It looked like a typewriter typeface. The point size of the type was rather large about the size of a nickel. The typeface they chose for the quotes really felt almost like a voice—it had character. The book was about Andy Warhol's road to success.

     The second catalog I chose was the smallest of the three and very text heavy. It was called, The New York Times Guide to the Arts of the 20th Century. It was written by the New York Times and was set in a Transitional serif type setting; Caslon or Baskerville. There was hardly any photographs and there was no color within the book. A different approach from the first catalog. The titles and the body text was in the same typeface, but the subtitles were in a geometric san serif font. This gave the catalog a sense of community. It read more like a text book than the first catalog.

     The third catalog was called, Art Deco The Definitive Guide to the Decorative Arts of the 1920s and 1930s. The catalog was written by Alastair Duncan and was about how the Deco movement showed up in all art forms like: sculpture, paintings, posters, glass, ceramics, lighting, jewelry, etc. The chapters were separated by each subject. This catalog was a good mixture of the two I discussed before hand. There was an even amount of photographs and body text. The type used in both body text and titles was a modern, Humanist san serif.

     Researching all of these catalogs gave me a really good idea of what my own catalog could look like. These three books has shown the range in which I can design myself. I personally was mostly influenced by the first catalog and how it was laid out to look more like a scrapbook instead of a text book. I prefer the type setting in the last book I discussed because the second book was too much like a boring text book.

Daisy / Erin O'Quinn

This is a video called "Daisy" that was made by Mo Ghayour, who took the song "Daisy" by Brand New and animated the lyrics. It looks to be a pet project undertaken by him because all of the photography was done by him as well. I am not sure what typeface it is, but it is sans-serif and in all caps. It looks pretty basic like Helvetica, but it's too narrow for that. So really I have no idea. At any rate, I particularly enjoyed this animation because some of the words he animated were particularly clever to convey the message. For example, when he used the word mouth, he split it in two horizontally, and made new text come in between the word so that it looks like a mouth opening with teeth. He treats many of his words to convey their meaning, such as making the word 'hot' red, and splitting the words mountain and moved into the shape of a peak. The way he fades in and out with the photography gave it a sense of delicacy which contributes to the natural setting. This animation inspires me because I really enjoyed how he added meaning to each of the words, not just making them flip around like some of the other videos I saw. I thought it was a nice job overall.

It's A Mad Mad Mad World : Michael Johnson

This title sequence for It's a Mad Mad Mad World was created by Saul Bass, and is one of the longest title sequences I've ever seen at about four minutes long. The typeface is a sans-serif typeface and looks somewhat like Univers to me, although I am not sure. I really love how the type and image play around with each other. Often the type stays on a line in a logical order, but at times Bass threw around the type, had it fall out of a globe or had a plane flying it around.  It's amazing how interesting a bunch of names can be made when they are surrounded by animation.  When you also consider that this was probably done with cut out letters to animate it, it makes me wonder why title sequences aren't nearly as creative today now that they can be done entirely with a computer. It makes me want to play with type layout in nonmoving imagery and really changes how I think image and type can be combined.

Typography animation - scarface William Taudien

This is a animation including quotes form the old "gangster" movie Scarface, synchronized to animated typography. It's created by Asger Juul-Larsen.
I was not able to find any relevant information about the artist, but the name sounds Norwegian. The typeface used in the animation it is a serif, some what similar to Geramond, but with more narrow letters.
Scarface is an older movie relating to maffia and gangster. The typeface used is appropriate for the concept because it reminds me of an old typeface that could be found on posters like "Dead or Alive, $5000 Reward." The voice used in the animation is dark and deep, complementing the typeface. The colors used are red and Black, which also are appropriate for the concept.

(Kirsten Alexander) Kinetic Type

http://vimeo.com/33434885

I chose this video because I thought that it was a clever way to introduce and educate about a typeface.
The video was created by Thibault de Fournas and Christopher Wilson.
It is all about Futura, who created it, when it was created and examples of it in use. I like this video because it is a more entertaining way to learn about a typeface.

Kinetic Typography - Lindsey Laibinis

I chose the video Make it Better by Climent Canal and Sebastian Baptista. I really enjoyed their version of kinetic typography because it was very playful! From beginning to end I was amused by all the different ways they used type. Compared to other videos I was looking at, this one stood out the most. They really used type in unique and interesting ways that kept my attention the entire time.

This video, I feel, is aimed at designers and typography lovers. By the way the video was done, the typography really played a big part of the video. Everything was emphasized on how type could be used in motion, and in my opinion it was done it beautifully. To me it's a big inspiration if I were to ever create a kinetic typography video or to think how typography can be used to set a specific mood or feeling. I think my favorite part is from 35 seconds to 45—the animation on the type is incredible!

They definitely used a variety of typefaces throughout the video—some of which I'm not too sure what they are.  I'm pretty sure in the beginning from start until 12 seconds the type face is the Sans Serif typeface Helvetica Neue (if not it looks very similar to it). From 13 seconds to it looks like they possibly used the Slab Serif Officina, the Geometric Sans Serif Futura, and Slab Serif typeface.


I think the typography they used in the beginning is a great choice for what their title of the video is ('Make it Better'). To me, it's your typical, standard looking typeface that you see when you're pretty much anywhere. It's the typeface that you can relate to, because it's literally almost everywhere you go. And if I'm correct, that typeface is Helvetica Neue. I love (as for layout) how the beginning is animated with the typography being typed out, erased, typed out again, erased, typed, highlighted and set to all caps. This to me enhances the communicated message to 'Make It Better'. From there it goes into animating the text and showcasing a playfulness to the video; showcasing different typefaces, animations, etc.

This personally for me inspires me in a way showing that type can be extremely playful in just simple ways. I don't necessarily have to illustrate a super detailed illustration with type to make it fun; instead I can be as simple as making the letter 'G' look as if it's a lamp. The entire video was simplistic, clean, fun, and entertaining to watch. It captured my attention with every single little thing done to each letter, which is something I hope I can incorporate in my work (if I ever do make a kinetic typography video!).


Oh yeah..and just because I thought this video was awesome, I want to include it too :D plus my nerdy side really enjoyed this so I just though for any other video game lovers out there that you guys would enjoy it too!

A. Adams Old Spice Kinetic Type

So after researching several different websites for a kinetic type video,  I came across this one that I thought was interesting. It's an audio from an old spice commercial via Vimeo. I really liked how the type was emphasized with the speech. The font used was some sort of sans serif font. Maybe helvetica- it used the same typeface throughout just adjusted by the weight. It seemed to be an expansive typeface family.

http://vimeo.com/21896359

Kenetic Type- Kristin McCreery

Alquimia Animated Type

I found this really neat video about kinetic type on Vimeo. The type face was really active and I loved the way it interacted with the music. Every letter was different every time it was displayed, however given that it was a very geometric San Serif I would think that maybe it was based off Futura.

Given the fact it's a video about animated type, it is clearly aimed at typographers, probably those who like some sort of Dub Step.

It communicates a message of fun uplifting typesetting even with the colors being black and tan. It is really the types playful activity that brings about this message, along with the beats playing in the background.

This video really influences me in the fact that you can have decorative type that doesn't look to tacky. I think something of this effect would be really great on some sort of poster.

Futura le Specimen Anime- Shelby Stockman

This is a video (in french) about the typeface Futura. It goes through the diferent weights and styles of Futura, then a history of when it was made and some of its uses. It is paired with a James Bond-ish song which I feel was perfect for the geometric san serif type. The video is animated beautifully and the style of the type works very well.  The audience, I would say, is designers and people that love type. The use of Futura throughout the entire video seems quite obviously the best choice since the video is about Futura.  The way the type is used is what impressed me so much. This video helps with learning hierarchy with direction, size, and color. I love the placement of the type. Arranging it in different directions for the different adds was perfect for transitions and the different weights and styles make every one different, showing that Futura has many personalities and uses.  If you want to use futura for anything I think this video is extremely helpful even if you don't speak french. It can show you all the different weights and good ways to use them together, plus its just fun to watch.

Psychiatric Answering Machine - Julio Barrientos

This is a pretty fun video using kinetic typography throughout it, I remember having this shown in my type 1 class and stumbled upon it on youtube when looking for examples for this blog. The audio in the video is supposed to be that of an answering machine to a mental health hotline. The type in the video goes along with the operator as he speaks. The overall type used appears to be Helvetica, and in one part when the operator mentions multiple personalities different typefaces are used for the word personalities to play along with the disorder. This video is pretty comical and the kinetic type is fun. It'd be fun to play with kinetic type when working with video, it makes type more interesting since usually when we see type in video it tends to be static like when used for titles. Playing with the movement  gives the type personality and makes it interesting to look at. 

Justin Halley_When Talktitles Met Harry & Sally

This is a clever video that takes a scene from the popular romantic comedy "When Harry Met Sally", and adds a scrolling text of what each actor is saying. It takes the ideas of subtitles but applies them in a way that is more fun and unusual, almost working as a word bubble without the use of an actual word bubble (what with the way the text appears near the actor's mouth and floats upwards and then dissolves). The text is a simple sans serif (possibly humanist?), and besides the placing and fading in and out of the text, there is actually very little visual flourish to the text. This simplicity actually works for the video, because it does not distract too much from the video, but does add a whole new level to the original footage, providing a clever use of subtitles that "allows the viewer to FEEL how the line was delivered". If I had any quibbles with the type, it would be that there could probably be a BIT more done to differentiate the text for different emotions, but overall the simplicity works rather than detracts.
I'm not sure how I would use this in a project beyond how it was used in the video, although the whole concept is really fun. Perhaps the way the words actually flow from the source they are created from could be an inspiration for a video with allot of objects and noises. Or maybe a video without sound, where the words come from different sources to mimic where the sounds would be. Regardless, I think this is a pretty good example of kinetic type.

Bored to Death: Kinetic Type - Ben Schmidt

This a bit different than your "traditional" kinetic type video, but I think it does an excellent job of using type to make up images.

It is an intro to a TV show called "Bored to Death" about a struggling writer who is also "fake" detective, so the audience is anyone who loves books, unique stories, or Zack Galifianakis for that matter.

I am not sure of the exact typeface used but it is obviously a serif font, something along the lines of Garamond, Janson, or Bembo, as those are usually used for copy inside of novels. The video basically shows a day in the life of the main character through the use of type to make up the people in the show and events that go on in the show.

I definitely think concept really hits home for what the show is about and I would really like to make a heavy type-based image for a future project.

Oceans 11 - Holli Hollingsworth

 

This is the title sequence for the 1960s movie Oceans 11. The sequence was created by Saul Bass. The title sequence is split into two parts, the first part shows the names of the eleven main characters with large numbers that blend into one another as they go along. In this part of the sequence the type is sans serif and is made out of dots. I think it was a good choice and works really well for this movie because the dots resemble all of the bright lights and digital signs you see in and around Vegas casinos like in the movie. The second half uses the same animated dots to form graphics around the rest of the credits. The way to animated dots come together looks like how they do on a digital sign. I don't know for sure what typeface they used in the second half but it resembles Univers.

Nathan Hostick: Kinetic Type

http://vimeo.com/2693546

I chose this video because its beautiful use of kinetic typography, paired up with a wonderful speech from the movie "Network".  The speech is very inspiring, and having the typography animated to go along with the dialogue only heightens the emotion.  The typeface used appears to be helvetica, with a subtle drop shadow.  I feel that this video can help me, and other students in the future, by showing how using type in an animated video, such as this, can have such a powerful outcome.  I know that this video made me very interested in kinetic type, and it is something I hope to learn more about.

Kinetic Typography/ Michael Villegas

Habitat for Humanity

In this short clip for Habitat for Humanity the Kinetic type comes into play with the use of blocks being rearranged by sets of hands. The audience is obviously the people they hope will contribute to the organization and it's efforts.  The type itself looks like a transitional serif, possibly Garamond or Jenson, maybe not a perfect match but close. I think what I would take away from this and use in my future projects is the subtle message sent by the blocks being rearranged by the hands which is that what your contributing to is an organization that is powered by people trying to help people. The use of this type of movement helps reinforce the positive message they are trying to send.

Isabel Ann Castro: TMBG Meet The Elements

They Might Be Giants is one of my favorite bands. Their videos are always really creative. TMBG started going really cool children's albums that teach them stuff. This is from the album, Here Comes Science. Molecules and Elements are the focus for the video. Feel Good Anyway created this video but had the "help of Eric Siegel of the New York Hall of Science to help them create a molecular model that would please both the kids and their fact-loving science teachers." This is a great example where type communicates rather than just moves around. My own mom showed it to her students and they did better own their tests over the elements than they did the first time. They use a sans serif font that is throughout the video. It makes it easy to read and modern looking.

Suite & Tie - Daniel Seong

Heres an official lyric video to Justin Timberlake's new single, Suite & Tie.
Yes, I do like Justin Timberlake.
I chose this video because I think there is lots of good things going on with type.
The whole video is black and white...
while the types are all colored with limited colors. (black, white, red, and gold)
and I feel like this makes the types pop out even more, draws attention.
which is a good thing, because it's a lyric video.
I think the typeface is futura or helvetica?
Anyways, I think it was a good idea to use san serif because it is modern, and clean.
Also, there is lots of hierarchy in it, which makes the types more dynamic and interesting.
It is fun too watch.
I really like the way the lyrics appear and disappear, like coming out of a smoke,
that gives a settle, and classy atmosphere.
Well done JT, well done.

Lily Kowalski - Kinetic Typography

Going through all the movies I like, there was only one movie and its opening credits available on Youtube, which was the opening credits of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World movie. I noticed that many people submitted the opening credits of this particular movie. I guess they thought it was the coolest opening sequence ever or something. I watched it again and I can guess why. Although the type (which looks like a bold Helvetica) is your typical, capitalized type face, the way they played around with it in the opening credits was well done. They made the credits move along with the band's rhythm. At some points you can catch the type so subtly move up or down, or become inverted. I love the glow and grittiness they applied to the type. I think it works because although it moves to the rhythm it is still very legible. I especially the designed type for the title in the very beginning of the video! The lightning bolt pattern gives the title some rhythm, which is a good representation since the movie is about a guy and his band. This is a good resource to look back on if I want to display legible text in a good order but I want to apply some subtle yet tasteful movement to it - especially if I'm designing something that has to do with gritty, indie rock music!