Brief:
Create a typographic piece that pays homage to the silent film era. The outcome should showcase how silent cinema influenced the film industry, from early moving image experiments like Magic Lanterns and the Zoetrope through inventors like Thomas Edison, the Lumière Brothers, Georges Méliès, and Max Reinhardt.
Outcome:
This project takes the reader on a visual journey of the film “A Trip to the Moon”. The book uses several visual effects to enhance the viewer’s reading experience and to make them feel like they are watching the film themselves. The aim of the project is to celebrate a film that isn’t commonly known around the world but is known in the world of silent cinema.
Research:
I began this project by focusing on the early history of motion-picture history, in terms of the equipment used to how the moving image evolved from animation to short clips to films and narratives. After this brief research, I began delving deeper into the rich history of silent cinema by researching other countries and their film industries such as the Soviet Union and pre-World War 1 Germany.
As well as this, I also began researching famous directors, actors as well as films, to which I then undertook visual research. Furthermore, I researched certain movements such as the German Expressionist movement as well as the ephemera released by the Soviet Union such as propaganda films and posters.
Development:
After undertaking research into silent cinema, I began exploring ways I could celebrate silent cinema, by researching different actors and films. From there, I began brainstorming ideas for what I could research further, eventually settling on writing a book about Georges Méliès' impact on silent cinema and the techniques he employed throughout the film "A Trip to the Moon".
During the development of this concept, I decided that my target audience would be young people, therefore I used a variety of visual effects, a simple colour scheme, and sans-serif typefaces. Furthermore, silent cinema is rarely discussed outside of Charlie Chaplin's status as a well-known silent comic, which is why I chose to focus my project on "A Trip to the Moon," which is acknowledged as the first science fiction film in history.
The visual effects are achieved using a variety of techniques, including 3D shapes, motion blurs, the wave tool, the twist tool, and numerous double and triple exposures. This is a reference to Méliès' methods, as he frequently employed the cutting tool to piece together his films to generate a sense of continuity. This was something I wanted to accomplish with my book.
Typography:
The display sans-serif type, Sofia Pro Bold, was employed to tell the reader of the current page as well as the chapter's scenario. By not overpowering the display type while simultaneously being visible enough for the user to read and grasp the material, the body text, Sofia Pro Regular, helps the book keep its clean and fluid design.
Colour Palette:
Because colour film was not fully developed in the early twentieth century, the minimal colour scheme employed was black and white, harkening back to the original brief of silent cinema.
Resolution:
My final work is a book that takes the reader on a visual trip through the movie "A Trip to the Moon." The book employs a variety of visual elements to enhance the viewer's reading experience and give the impression that they are seeing the movie themselves. The book's goal is to highlight a film that isn't well-known outside of the silent film community but is well-known within it. There are 17 chapters in the book, which correspond to the 17 scenes of Georges Méliès' 12-minute film.
I found this project to be challenging at times but satisfying in the end because I was able to complete a full publication honouring the silent movie period. Furthermore, I pushed myself to unimaginable heights by conducting a variety of typographic experiments that I would not have attempted prior to this project. Working on the ISTD competition piqued my interest in typography and how I may improve my skills in this area.
