Project 4: Typeface
Assigned Typeface: Merriweather
Script
While writing my script, I based off the main points from my essay that I thought were essential and wanted to include in the video. I wanted to focus on features such as the large x height, diagonal stress, and straight vertical stems. Since Merriweather is not used for logos, movie posters, etc., I wanted to focus on how Merriweather was designed for screens, but also influenced from historical books and typefaces.
Script:
Storyboard
This is my first storyboard that I made on Illustrator. Since the main idea of this video is that Merriweather is designed for screens, I added a cursor element when the features of the typeface is introduced. I also used a very minimalistic color palette which is similar to the color palette that I used in one of my project 3 iterations. This is a pretty rough storyboard since this is just a general layout and I haven’t thought much about the transitions and movement. I also thought about Vicki mentioned about building up and climax, so I included the actual name of Merriweather in the 9th art board. I estimate this to be at around 20 seconds.
Sound
When looking for songs, I tried to search for classical, jazz music that had a fast and modern beat to it. I thought those kind of songs fit my message of the video of how Merriweather was inspired from traditional typeface, but made for modern screens. I was originally set on “Fun Weekend” by Sergo Wind.
Link to “Fun Weekend” by Sergo Wind
However, while trying to put this song into After Effects, I realized that the beat of the song is very repetitive and doesn’t have much dynamic to it which wouldn’t be so effective in my build up in the beginning. I found a different song called “Looking for a way out” by Paola Pavan. This song had more beats, and had a beat change at around 20 seconds which was what I was looking for.
Link to “Looking for a way out” by Paola Pavan
I also wanted to add a keyboard typing sound in the beginning when it says “10 years ago today…”. I had to slow down the sound because it was too fast.
Revision
After getting feedback, I decided to change the grey backgrounds to white because I think I would have to do too many transitions of the background changing color which would not be so efficient for my video. I also changed the diagonal stress part to featuring angled down serifs after talking to Vicki because she mentioned that the diagonal stress line wasn’t an important feature. I also changed the phrase from “to maintain the old fashion book type feel” to “to maintain the traditional book feel”. I originally had the Merriweather body paragraph to have a repetitive sentence that said “Merriweather for body paragraphs.”, however, I changed it to have actual text which is actually the intro paragraph of my essay that I used for my spread. I changed the pictures of the websites to black and white because I didn’t really like the random colors the pictures were since it didn’t really fit with my color palette. I also thought about what I was emphasizing, and in my original story board I emphasized “feel”, however, I changed to emphasize “but designed for” because it was leading up to the next phrase which is “modern digital screens”.
Final
Overall, I feel like I’ve learned a lot about type and motion. I felt that my layout for my storyboard was well made, however, I did struggle with transitions and motion on After Effects because I am not quite used to animating my illustrations, however, I feel that I did use the song efficiently with my transitions in my video though by matching the beat of the song to the motion. Although this is something very different from what I usually make, I had a lot of fun and I really enjoyed this project. I’m glad that I ended this mini class on a high note!
