Virtual Typography

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Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

1st Proof Page:113

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Questions – Imaginary Forces

Peter Cho is a Los Angeles-based media artist and designer

who holds a Master of Science degree from the MIT Media

Lab, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University

of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Design/Media Arts

department. This typographic animation created by Cho

for IBM, under the creative direction of Mikon van Gastel

at Imaginary Forces, shows visual effects similar to those

used by Why Not Associates for the Profi les animation (see

page 106). Rotating typographic elements merge over a

period of time to turn into words. Cho coded his solution

based on Open GL and C++, which allowed him a far greater

fl exibility in the variation of the typographic transitions. Cho’s

motion graphics show how virtual typography can operate

rhythmically. If transitions between image and text patterns

are repeated systematically, virtual typography stimulates the

viewer’s mind due to its transitional characteristics as well

as the viewer’s expectation of recurring patterns. While one

word takes shape, is read and refl ected upon, another one

emerges so that the momentum is sustained. The intellectual

refl ection that follows the cognitive phase is accompanied by

the next phase of aesthetic stimulation. Cho manages to fi nd

a perfect balance between the continuity of motion and the

variation in transition.

Job:01212 Title: Basics typography (AVA)

1st Proof

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