KINETIC TYPE (GAS DRAWLS BY MF DOOM)

Typography II
Type in Motion

Year
2024

Programs
After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Skills
Storyboarding, Animation, Motion Design

This project was assigned as a type-dominant piece that would effectively represent a piece of audio that was 45 seconds to a minute long. I chose to use MF DOOM’s ‘Gas Drawls’ because of it’s animated lyrics and it’s forward-moving boom bap beat. This allowed me to easily imagine the lyrics as living pieces of design that are dynamic and ever-changing.

Problem: Create an animated video that is type-dominant using a piece of sound that is 45 seconds to a minute long.

Solution: I chose to use MF DOOM’s ‘Gas Drawls’ and focused on the imagery that was delivered from within the lyrics and the overall tone of the song. I animated certain words with movement that represented how they were delivered and transitions that also expressed the nonchalantness of MF DOOM’s voice while referencing street life, gun violence, and drug use. Many times MF DOOM has used the aesthetics of vintage comic books, graffiti, and cartoons of the 50s through 70s as a part of his artistic identity and I kept those aesthetics in mind while using various typefaces, textures, and image treatments. I found creative ways to link verbs within the lyrics to actual movements, shapes within words to the objects being discussed within the song, and finding ways to make words interact with each other directly through phonetic or visual similarities.