Status Quo

This workshop emphasized the interaction and cooperation between Indonesian, Greek and German media design students. The topic was “Type in Motion“, so our team used proverbs in English and Javanese [NO GREEK?]. The workshop took place at the University of Applied Sciences Ulm and went on for four and a half days. An excursion to the Bauhaus in Dessau and to Berlin followed.

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Problem Statement

The problem was to find a good connection between the proverbs and to animate the typography in an interesting and fitting way, so the proverbs would be understandable and the animation attractive for the audience.

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Purpose Statement

We wanted the different proverbs to be connected through one story. It was important for us to turn our ideas into an animation that has simple clean line art and typography. By the use of keywords, we wanted to find similarities and symbols of the different proverbs.

Concept

We started the animation with the word “YOU“, which appears and transforms into a stick figure. Then the typography changed into an image. With this stick figure as our main character, we visualized the proverbs and created a visual bracket. This technique was used on other words in the provers as well. It was important for us that the person and the animals were designed in a handwriting typography to show their organic personality and as a contrast the faded in proverbs are represented in a sanserif typography. The whole animation, especially the movements, is supported by appropriate sound effects and the proverbs were also read aloud by a narrator.

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Message

The deeper meaning of all proverbs is the same. Although there are different animals or persons, there is always a common denominator. This is why all proverbs tell you that you should be aware of which kind of person you keep in touch with in your life. People in your environment have, also indirectly, a huge influence on you. If you keep people around you who always have an evil or bad intention, you'll never experience good things or pass on good things to other people. You should be very cautious of the company you keep.

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Conclusion

The letters “YOU“ were chosen to be our main character because we wanted to symbolize that every person is included. It also connected the two different proverbs in the animation. Both proverbs were pretty similar, in that they have animals who affect us. With this common ground we were able to make a good visual bracket of the proverb. Animated typography is a powerful medium. Everyone can understand the meaning and the animation also gives an emotional touch.

Teammembers