What is Typography Animation?

Humans have always been fascinated by the movement of things. From the invention of the first wheel to the successful flight by the Wright Brothers, transformation and movement have always been one of the bases of our daily lives. Advertising has always made use of images and texts and the consumers are already used to seeing these images, texts, and videos in the form of PowerPoint presentations and Word documents when introducing or rebranding a product. What, then, happens when boring, static texts can move? It will create more attention by tapping into our inquisitive minds by evoking a stronger feeling. The need to know is what will keep consumers glued to their screens until the end product is revealed. This simple attraction is the reason that birthed typography animation by web designers.

What is Typography Animation?

Typography animation, also known as kinetic typography, is the use of moving text to introduce or portray an idea, feeling, or emotion during a video animation. It is a form of passing information or idea over a period of time using texts.

There has been a decline in reading habits as written by The New Yorker in his study about reading habits in the world and this has shown that advertisement in form of texts will not be read as much as adverts that can be digested quickly and on the move. The alternative to text advertisement has been advertising in images and videos but the challenge with this form of advert is that the internet has now been flooded with a lot of videos and images that have hindered the flow of relevant information. This, in turn, means that there is now a large competition between marketers, brand managers and the public for their share of the consumers’ attention.

There are two (2) main genres of typography animation;

1. Motion or swaying typography: The elements in this genre of animation move in the same plane but does not change or transform into something else. In this type of animation, texts can turn upside down, shrink, or even expand but keep their texts in the same plane in a way that affirms understandability.
2. Fluid typography: The elements in this animation have the ability to change form into something else. It can mimic the characteristics or functions of an object, animal, person, or place. This type of typography keeps the audience’s attention locked in the different characters formed by the texts until their information has been passed.   

The different patterns and principles in Typography animation have been explained with images in Hackernoon. 

The Uses of typography animation include;

• Emphasizing the meaning of a text: Typography animation can be used to draw more attention to a product or brand name while emphasizing on its industry and uses. It helps its audience remember the brand name and what it does.
• Educational purposes: Teaching can be a bore for students with very short attention spans and using typography animation to pass information or introduce a topic to the students to ensure that they will retain the information given and will be excited enough to pay attention during the animation.
• Introducing your brand or product: For pre-existing companies that want to re-brand or for new companies that want to bring the attention of their audience to the availability of their product, typography animation is the best choice.
• Draw attention to a brand: What else is there to say? Who doesn’t want to watch an interesting brand with a new and creative way to show itself?

Some examples of really interesting types of typography animation can be found here by Invision.