A New History of Temporal Typography : Towards Fluid Letterforms

Abstract

* This peer-reviewed article argues that there are precursors to kinetic typography in historical examples of static, printed typography and other graphic design practices. It connects historical to recent practices, and in so doing demonstrates that a particular form of kinetic typography, fluid typography, is not technologically determined, but rather, a logical progression from practices exhibited historically in static media, from the seventeenth to early-twentieth century. This article represents part of a larger investigation into fluid typography that is presented in the monograph, Transforming Type: New Directions in Temporal Typography (Bloomsbury, 2014).