Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Transforming Type examines kinetic or moving type in a range of fields including film credits, television idents, interactive poetry and motion graphics. As the screen increasingly imitates the properties of real-life environments, typographic sequences are able to present letters that are active and reactive. These environments invite new discussions about the difference between motion and change, global and local transformation, and the relationship between word and image.

In this illuminating study, Barbara Brownie explores the ways in which letterforms transform on screen, and the consequences of such transformations. Drawing on examples including Kyle Cooper's title sequence design, kinetic poetry and MPC's idents for the UK's Channel 4, she differentiates motion from other kinds of kineticism, with particular emphasis on the transformation of letterforms into other forms and objects, through construction, parallax and metamorphosis. She proposes that each of these kinetic behaviours requires us to revisit existing assumptions about the nature of alphabetic forms and the spaces in which they are found.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of illustrations (p. vii)
• Introduction (p. ix)
• Towards a classification of temporal typography (p. ix)
• A note on terminology (p. xiii)
• Part 1 Mapping the field: Categories of kineticism (p. 1)
• 1 What is kineticism? (p. 3)
• Typography in temporal media (p. 3)
• Temporal typography (p. 6)
• Serial presentation (p. 6)
• Scrolling typography (p. 7)
• Dynamic layout (p. 11)
• Kinetic typography: Motion and change (p. 14)
• 2 Global v. local events (p. 17)
• Global displacement and local kineticism (p. 17)
• Elasticity or transformation (p. 19)
• 3 Local kineticism and fluctuating identity (p. 23)
• Fluid typography (p. 23)
• Metamorphosis (p. 26)
• Construction (p. 28)
• Revelation (p. 32)
• A note on false fluidity (p. 34)
• Part 2 Issues in transforming typography (p. 37)
• 4 Illusory space: The page and screen as a virtual environment (p. 39)
• Construction in three-dimensional space (p. 39)
• Revelation in three-dimensional objects (p. 42)
• 5 Legibility and asemisis in fluid typography (p. 49)
• Legibility at the poles of transformation (p. 49)
• A temporal relationship between word and image (p. 51)
• Fluctuating legibility and asemisis (p. 53)
• Asemisis and the search for new knowledge (p. 55)
• 6 Reactive and generative behaviors (p. 59)
• Interactivity and reactivity (p. 59)
• Generative typography: The next step in reactivity (p. 62)
• Part 3 Case studies (p. 65)
• 7 Fluid branding: Channel 4 and its imitators (p. 67)
• Martin Lambie Nairn and new forms of kinetic branding (p. 67)
• Modularity and text/image relationships in the Channel 4 logo (p. 69)
• Masquerade and illusion (p. 71)
• Influence (p. 73)
• Ident families (p. 74)
• 8 Telling titles: The credit sequences of Kyle Cooper and his peers (p. 77)
• Bridging the gap between typography and film (p. 77)
• Overlaying and integration (p. 79)
• Kyle Cooper and text/image relationships (p. 81)
• 9 Kinetic poetry (p. 85)
• Temporal poetry and the static page (p. 85)
• Kineticism as performance (p. 88)
• Fluidity in holopoetry (p. 90)
• Conclusion (p. 93)
• Kineticism elsewhere (p. 93)
• Appendix: Categories of Temporal Typography (p. 97)
• Notes (p. 99)
• Bibliography (p. 103)
• Index (p. 111)