I believe that before the beginning of any discussion or debate a general definition or introduction should be given. According to the latest Encyclopedia Britannica core definition of typography is that ‘typography is concerned with the determination of the appearance of the printed page’. In short, typography is the art of print. Typography comes from the Greek work Etymology, meaning typos—type, graphos—written. The video above is an example of how font’s size, texture, shape, color and movement express the meanings of words. My objective is to write about the LANGUAGE and ELEMENTS of this video’s design.
In terms of language, my aim is to write about this video as a visual design or vocabulary. In other words, understand how the text is meant to communicate it’s meanings to us. Let’s start with the choice of font(s) used in this video which is the primary aspect of typography. The text used composes a message that is readable and coherent aimed at producing clarity in whatever meaning the text is trying to signify. If you notice the video at the beginning displays its words a little less obvious in size than at the end. The words become bigger which I think helps establish hierarchy in the video.
Looking at the first word in red, “pain” expresses importance in its meaning. Pain, in any connotation is defined as something bad or distressing. This is only normal as to the reason why the author of this video expresses the word in red. For instance, the word pain in comparison to the first three words “Take me away” creates variety. In the sense that pain, creates visual interest and awareness to the audience. Not only is the word in red, but the word is somewhat shadowed with lighter versions of the same word above and below, balancing the visual contrast. These different types of looks of the same word when in combination carry the same meaning across - pain.
Color produces the sense and resonance to the subject matter which imparts yet another important feature of typography. The interplay of a black background creates unity during the movie. This is because; black brings out almost any color so it is safe for any text size to be visible. For example; when the blinking red word “hurts” comes in with the small text underneath, displaying at a rather fast speed word for word – Death is the only freedom; the text is still very much visible. This black background controls the variety of text used. Further along the movie when the size of the words became bigger and uses various font styles and sizes but still remains clear, it is only evident that the black background complements the text appropriately. Also, I feel like when the text starts using bigger font sizes it shows the movie is coming to an end.
In reference to the elements of this video’s design, I am going to examine the various graphics and techniques used to support this video. Garr Reynolds could not have helped explained my first point any better. In his article “10 Tips on How to “Think like a Designer”, his number 7 tip - Think communication not decoration, he talks about how design including graphic design is not all about beautification. However, design is about solving problems, making the current situation better than before and most importantly communication.
This takes me to the format and orientation used in the movie which is a plain black background. Although the black to some might seem dull and uninteresting, I feel the creator was trying to get an important message across – the words. I think the black background kept the audience attention on the words and did not distract them by a colorful background.
The views of my eyes were solely focused on the words on the screen. As the words appeared slowly at the beginning of the video, my focus and eye movement were slow. Further moving along to the end of the movie when the words started appearing at the top left then to the bottom right of the screen the movements of my eyes changed accordingly. For example, the words – “Waiting for you”, “I am lost” “I am cold”, “You are my heart” and “You are my soul” pulled my eyes towards a diagonal view to the words in comparison to the rest of the words in the movie.
The contrast of this movie though short was very decisive; there is enough variety through the color, layout and texture of the text. I feel this movie presented enough visual communication by conspicuously presenting important words. The movie persuaded the audience to view all persuasive words like “pain” by complementing it with color and style. It also translated this verbal language to visual form by unknowingly capturing the audience attention.
You didn’t think I wasn’t going to discuss the music used in the video, did you?
Yes, the melody of the music used only added to the beauty of this work. If you notice, at the beginning of the video the melody of the music was clam in accordance to the subtle text. Somewhere at the middle of the movie, where “Not an option” came into play the rest of the words from there took another turn. As the words increased in size and the speed became faster, the tune of the music elevated in volume.
I listened to the entire video a couple of times without the music. Although the experience wasn’t entirely the same in comparison to watching the video with music, there wasn’t that much difference. I felt that the major words emphasized still stood out to some extent. Even though the sound definitely produced a more effective take, I could still communicate visually noticing and observing the key elements.
Here’s a link to Garr Reynolds article “10 tips on how to think like a designer”
http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2009/08/10-tips-on-how-to-think-like-a-designer.html
Happy Read
"Everything you can imagine is real."
— Pablo Picasso
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