Discourse - Looking Closer 3 - The New Typography – Moholo-Nagy

The New Typography – Moholo-Nagy

Entertaining to read, Moholo-Nagy predicts that the telephone and film would be the death of the book. He stipulates that type must be a simultaneous experience of vision and communication. No longer can type be subject the whims of the scribe, such as in Ancient Egypt. Now, the form of letter cannot be broken, for too many people rely on the legibility of those 26 letterforms. With the inception of new photographic techniques (and much later, the computer), the artist is inspired to create a new language with type, with nigh infinite variability and elasticity. However, typography is first and foremost a tool of communication. An emphasis must remain on absolute clarity. Books, being replaced by film and other forms of communication, will no longer be the main typographical image, and will be replaced by the poster.
I feel that, while dated, his belief that type would be freed by technology came true. While, some artists might take it too far, it's easy to see that the integration of expressive moving type in modern commercials.


http://www.trollback.com/#/work/projects/151

Trollback just recently visited school and was really inspirational. His talk was exciting and showed me a step forward in Graphic Design and motion graphics. Here we see an effective use of type in motion, both interacting with the movement of the people in the piece, and the environment. The piece presents the type clearly, with an emphasis on communication and clarity, but freed from the limiting two-dimensional page.

Stranger than Fiction: Opening Sequence

The intro sequence to Stranger than Fiction utilizes typography in an interactive and active manner, reinforcing the spoken word without repeating it. The text in this becomes a character of its own. The type, like in the Trollback video, functions as a support to the story.

Many professional websites out there utilize technology and typography together, but TED is one of most notable. Type is presented in a clear and distinct manner. The type here is the main character, with photography in a support capacity. The clear hierarchy of the site utilizes some of the limits of our modern technology to its advantage. The grid system in place functions well on the internet, as the basis of HTML is the table system.