Type and The Human Body

Posted by Jenn | Posted in , | Posted on Friday, August 28, 2009

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My self directed projected I have been looking into over the summer focuses on the human body - I have come across a film called 'The Pillow Book' by Peter Greenaway. Two major themes within this film are Calligraphy and the Human Body and this film merges the two together.

This idea is a very interesting one - People get tattoos all the time, but somehow for me seeing images of this film it felt different for me - they weren't just silly tattoos, this is typography being wrapped around the human body whilst at the same time telling a story. This really appeals to me.

The lettering artist for this film is Brody Neuenschwander - He did not use digital technology for this effect, he rendered the letters directly onto the skin of the actors. Although he does project some calligraphy onto the bodies also - I find this really effective especially when the body moves and the text wraps around a different part of the body. It takes form to a different level, I really enjoy watching it as it is relaxing. But by rendering the lettering onto the skin, it allows the letterforms twist elegantly and unexpectedly whenever the body moves.

I think this is what appeals to me the most - The movement of the body, and basically the body being represented in a different way. In this film, a young Japanese woman writes her calligraphy, writes her story on the bodies of her lovers. They are the paper she is writing on.
Below is the trailer for the film 'The Pillow Book' :-

Type - Hand Technologies

Posted by Jenn | Posted in , | Posted on Friday, August 28, 2009

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I have never really been into creating 3D or CGI Animations using digital technologies - I feel as though going through the process of creating the technology by hand is a lot more creative.

One example I have come across to represent my interest in hand technology is a title sequence of a film called 'Office Killer'. They used a projector to show the typeface of the credits moving slowly across office equipment such as a computer and keyboard, a photocopier and an ashtray overflowing with Cigarette butts - Obviously as the words were projected onto these different objects, their surface would allow the words to form themselves around the objects which creates a very interesting type in motion in my opinion!

The whole reason why The designer made the type in this way is because 'Office Killer' had a low budget and could not allow the money to be spent on digital technologies to create the opening titles. Still frames of the titles were assembled and were projected onto the office objects - The letterforms themselves are not in motion, it's the whole still that moves.
I like the rough aspect of this idea and I find it more my kind of style compared to the digital side to it.
I found this information in a book and again I have found it difficult to find the footage for the title sequence - These scans show the typeface forming around different objects creating a new form for the typeface - What is also very interesting is just how dark everything seems - it is as though the audience are made to guess what the type is wrapping itself around.

Norman McLaren - Type

Posted by Jenn | Posted in , | Posted on Friday, August 28, 2009

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In 1959 there was a chat show hosted by Jack Paar, and to celebrate the success of this chat show, McLaren was asked to design and direct the title sequence and the credit sequence for an anniversary one off named 'The Wonderful World Of Jack Paar'.

I have been looking at other works by Norman Mclaren for different areas of my Multimedia pathway, I would never have thought to look at McLarens work for my type research. However, I came across these images in a book and found it very typical of McLarens style of bringing random marks to life.
The letterforms 'Spring to Life' and become characters in their own right. The letters begin to play and dance with each other, whilst performing the task of spelling out the names and words involved in the show.
I have found it difficult to find the actual footage of the title sequence, but I do have stills to represent the style in which McLaren organised these letterforms:-
It is difficult to see from these images the detail of the stills, however you still get a sense of how the letterforms are flowing and moving around one another. I like this style of representing type - It is fun and creative and grabs the audiences attention from the very beginning which I admire.

Dr. Strangelove

Posted by Jenn | Posted in , | Posted on Tuesday, August 18, 2009

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Also from the same era as Saul bass, pablo Ferro collaborated with director Stanley Kubrick in the film Dr. Strangelove (1963). ferro hand drew pencil thin letters which interacted with the footage being shown behind it -  the type covers the whole screen on top of the footage but because it is thin hand-drawn typography it is not overpowering, and it is not heavy on the eye either. I was drawn to this kind of type because I feel more comfortable whenever i produce work designing the type in a hand written style, i think it has a certain charm to it.
One example of my own work when i was considering typography is in my 1st year, the 'How to...' guide. I chose to animate 'How To Hunt For Ghosts'. I hand drew the type in a scratchy style which i felt represented the theme nicely and I then had to put the type in motion.

PSYCHO

Posted by Jenn | Posted in , | Posted on Tuesday, August 18, 2009

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Another title sequence by Saul Bass which caught my eye is Psycho. I was attracted to this mainly due to the boldness of it and the crisp grey horizontal and vertical lines which move together with the type into the black space. I especially like the jerky motion of the type which i feel represents the main character in the film, it relates to the psychotic schizophrenia theme. I also think that the grey lines represent what happens at the end of the film - where Norman Bates is put behind bars. Again, the typography is very experimental and playful for that era (1960), and catches the attention of the audience along with the dramatic music and visual aspects of the title sequence, it has drawn a massive audience.

TYPOGRAPHY RESEARCH - START OF YEAR 3!

Posted by Jenn | Posted in , | Posted on Tuesday, August 18, 2009

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Over the summer holidays, I have been researching and collecting images and films that represent typography that catches my eye and imagination.

I decided to start off by looking at film titles, as type in motion is the main area I wanted to looker deeper into.
I thought a good starting point was to look at the older films, and how the designers back then accomplished type in motion. I have also realised that these film titles I have looked at have a certain charm to them, a rough old-style design which really appeals to me.

Anatomy Of A Murder is just one of the films that Saul Bass has created the titles for. He used graphic symbolism to transform film titles of that Era (1959). This is an example of one of his earlier titles which shows a traditional animation that uses cell drawings or cut forms. This example shows hand cut shapes of body parts which move in and out of the space and shift in scale. different parts of the body are juxtaposed to create abstract relationships with one another before they finally come together at the end of the titles to represent a body at a murder scene. I feel like this kind of typography is very playful and yet still represents the content of the film perfectly.
Saul Bass uses the shapes of the body to draw attention to the actual typography, it all ties in perfectly together - the timing of the edits emphasise the drama which is the intention to draw the audience in. I think it is very clever how simple shapes and typography work so well together.
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