Typography in Motion

Last semester for the Process magazine assignment I chose to research Saul Bass, and from researching dozens of his fantastic film title sequences I rekindled a love I've always had for movable type. Saul Bass is credited as the father of movable type, and in his lifetime he created some of the best sequences out there. His work still holds up today even against the use of rapidly-advancing technology. If you happen to enjoy movable typography, I highly suggest you check out more of his film title work.

The sequence for The Man with the Golden Arm is one of his most famous 

While Saul Bass was the forerunner of creating movable type and his style is often emulated today, there are tons of films and television shows that use movable type. I found a great website that showcases a lot of such type. That website is Art of the Title. The website has a lot to offer and it has a great index of sequences from various films and television shows. You could spend hours on the website becoming inspired. Some of the entires even have interviews with the title creators and/or links to other interesting resources.

I'm not sure if anyone finds this movie funny or relevant anymore, but I admit I always enjoyed the title sequence. 

I like the mix of materials and the use of hand-done type and the overall playfulness. 

There's a lot more out there to find since movable type is not used just for opening sequences. I recently discovered some great use of type in the BBC's Sherlock Holmes series. They use movable typography in tremendous ways throughout the entire show. I'll end this off with two clips of my favorite sequences: