Week 7 in Digital Media: Type

Font selection in design is a subtle art. The right kind of font can subconsciously suggest certain themes to the audience and therein conveying a message without the audience even knowing.

This is a poster for one of my favourite movies, The Boondock saints. The movie is about two Irish brothers who live in Boston. They become vigilantes and do everything they can to destroy the criminal underworld, through any means necessary. As the title "Saints" would suggest, the brothers are religious (also implied by their Irish background) and their mission of justice is one of biblical proportions. The type they use is suggested of this biblical proportion. This type looks like that "Times New Roman" we find in microsoft word..... Times New Roman - Roman Catholic - Catholic - Catholic Bible - Bible - Biblical proportions. The type they use helps suggest that religious intent that can be seen in the movie

 

This is the title screen for one of my favourite Television shows, Spider-Man The Animated Series from 1994. The type used here is pretty coll in my opinion. I think it help illustrate that although this is a cartoon it still has teeth (Which the show actually has, which is why it is such an awesome show). For me, the sharp tails of the letters give the impression of the webbing of a spider and also the legs of a spider. This type was also used in the video games and comics that also came out at the time, which were also amazingly awesome. I've watched the show so many times that whenever I see a font that even looks a little bit like this one, the first think of is spider-man.

This is a "screen shot" of the iconic computer seen in the movie, The Matrix. Now you might say: "Waaaait a second... This isn't even a real font or a type..."   To which I respond....SO??????  In the movies, we never find out what all the different symbols mean but the characters in the movie are always able to interpret them. This type falls from the top of the screen in a sort of waterfall effect. So now whenever I see a bunch a patterns falling on a screen in any way, I think of the Matrix. This is effective because now when I see this, or anything like it I think of something computerized and mechanical. Which is basically what the Matrix is all about. Humans hacking into computers and transporting themselves through computer software to fight the machines who have driven the human race underground. Literally. Also, the colour green is very effective because, to the right viewer, it would evoke memories of the ancient computers that were once used. The only colour they could produce was this pale green. It all adds to the theme of human vs machines.