Bodoni // Type Specimen Sheet

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As the period for these assignments came to a close, I attended critique sessions to get feedback on my design which I could amend over the coming weeks before the final submission of all the projects. As briefed, I created an A2 Black and White Bodoni Type Specimen Sheet. This blog has evidenced the research I have done into existing Bodoni Type Specimen Sheets and publications from the past which have used Giambattista’s typeface. I started the process attempting to manipulate the common use of Villard’s diagram but it was when I spent time on 20 Minute Alternatives, I started to create some interesting layouts which proved popular amongst tutors and peers.

The second part of this assignment required me to create a short 3 second TV Ident for Bodoni and so I tried to implement a consistent styling between poster and animation. I suppose the styling of the Bodoni // TV Ident could have been more consistent by using black but I wanted to portray the background of the typographer by adding the Italian red to the animation.

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Overall, I feel I have produced two good examples of how the Bodoni typeface can be used and hopefully my poster will circulate on the web when other students are gathering research for a Bodoni Type Specimen Sheet project.

Thank you for following this assignment, the next will start promptly.

Adding Motion to Shapes // Bodoni

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Whilst awaiting feedback on a Type Specimen Sheet poster design. I decided to spend a few hours experimenting with the TV Ident part of this assignment. Using the style of the ampersand in one of my posters, I tried to illustrate and animate the dropping of ink, forming of the Bodoni character and detailing of what the animation was about.

I used Garage Band and Premier Pro to generate and add very basic sound effects. The sound definitely needs more work, I was just in a rush to finish for the evening. For my final TV Ident I hope to record my own sound effects.

TV Idents on Vimeo // Pt. IV

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The last logo animation I looked at was by Paul Kusmaul on Vimeo. Another playful style approach to a TV Ident which I think works really effectively when then use contemporary typefaces but I am not sure whether this style will compliment Bodoni just as well. Nevertheless, a great animation with a lot of expression from the motion of shapes and type moving about the screen.

TV Idents on Vimeo // Pt. III

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Another example of logo animation on Vimeo, uploaded by Toros Köse, is this TV Ident for Scout. This is one of my favourite examples I have found in my research because there is so much happening staggered with a small amount of frames in between which builds up to create such a visually interesting logo. The animation compliments the nature of the logo very well and although it’s something which looks so simple, I can imagine a lot of time and effort went into positioning and masking every single line and decor of the logo. Great stuff!

TV Idents on Vimeo // Pt. II

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I found this example of Logo Animation on Vimeo. When searching for “TV Idents” it doesn’t return many results which simply use the animation of shapes and type. Therefore I have opened up my search to simply “logo animation” as I thought this is a more commonly used term to describe TV Idents.

This example was by Edi Vieito, posted on Vimeo 2 years ago. It has a fun and playful style of animation and use of sound with the simple motion and animation of basic shapes. The construction and deconstruction of shapes and letters progressed to advertise the company logo at the end of the sequence.

BBC TV History // 60 Years of Idents

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Whilst I await some feedback on my latest poster ideas and designs, I thought I would conduct some further research into TV Idents to give me some inspiration for my next scheduled week of work.

I found this video on Youtube. I had already seen it in the past and thought it was a fascinating documentation of the evolution which the BBC logo and TV Idents had displayed. It would also give me inspiration into TV Idents from an earlier time frame, like the mid 20th Century, in order to see if there was a style I could take inspiration from.

60 years ago the BBC unveiled its first “television symbol” – a moving logo to identify a TV channel – nowadays known as an “ident”. The new medium of television, the BBC decided, needed a new way to identify itself to viewers.

Initial Ideas // TV Ident

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I spent a few hours creating paths in Adobe Illustrator, importing them into After Effects and then animating them to resemble the grids used to draw out each letter. I feel the idea and concept I am trying to approach is strong but the visual and animation just needs a lot more developing over the next couple of weeks to really refine the idea.

Adding Motion to Shapes // Pt.IV

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Whilst developing a submission for the TV Ident part of the assignment, I took time out to produce short motion graphics as practice or a warm up before starting the TV Ident design process.

Adding Motion to Shapes

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I spent a couple of hours just brushing up on the simple transformation of shapes and adding motion to them using Adobe After Effects. None of these are polished animations but it was more of a quick task so I could begin producing and experimenting with the motion of shapes before I start to develop a TV Ident for my Bodoni project.

Bodoni: A Modern Typeface // Video

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I managed to find this great animation clip which Sam Mularczyk designed and posted on Youtube. It covers the history, uses and characteristics of the Bodoni typeface in an animation which used very simple transformation effects in a very effective and stylish way. This is definitely a style of animation which I can see compliments the characteristics of the Bodoni typeface so this is maybe something I can draw inspiration from, for my 3 second TV Ident.