Animated Typography

After a hypnotic hour of videos, I'm happy to say I have reconsidered my original ideas for this project (which is fine because the originals are never that good anyway).

The first (and maybe most important) question to be considered is What makes a video unique? Interestingly, the seemingly obvious answer contradicts much of what I had planned for my motion solution. Coming in to this project, I associated typographic AfterEffects videos with speed and the ability to keep even an increasingly attention-deficit generation on the edge of their seat. But after watching enough videos to embrace a broader spectrum of solutions, the speed, typography, and graphics in a given video should all relate back to one thing: the concept. Oh that damn concept...

Newly inspired by this "slow" style of motion graphics, I latched onto several videos right away. The first is the Catch Me If You Can title sequence. Since I have marveled over this bit of motion graphics (and movie for that matter) prior to this exploration, this video provided an opportunity to watch without sound. Although it is truly a crime to turn off the legendary John Williams interpreting 1960s jazz, a muted title sequence is a strong affirmation of Jakob Trollback's statement that "design in motion should work in print." This statement is reinforced even more through the titles of Thank You For Smoking. Every inch of this sequence screams the concept of displaying brilliant typography like vintage cigarette packaging. Once again, the music reinforces this concept (and in some ways dictates the speed of the graphics) but isn't necessary for the video to relay its message. Lastly, I latched onto Adolf Hitler's speech. From a typographic standpoint, there are disasterous decisions being made. But that very realization is a testament to the concept of the video and the reinforcement of a brutally blunt and downright terrifying display of humanity.

Ok one more movie/title sequence to share.. but no introduction.

(Have to keep you at least a little curious, right?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x94Lr4a1IdY&feature=related