“Edna's Pep Talk” — Typographic Animation

2019

Motion

Create a short, type-driven animated video centered around a clip of dialogue of my choosing.

Final Work

The clip I selected for the project is a scene from The Incredibles — a pep talk by Edna Mode to Elastigirl/Helen Parr. I chose this clip because there was a strong contrast between the two characters’ personalities, emotions and voices (especially noticeable in this scene), the scene is very dynamic as it picks up tempo and intensity over time. These two attributes enabled for both visual and auditory contrasts to take advantage of. I limited the use of non-typographic elements to nearly zero. The background and a single illustration (globe with pin) are the only non-typographic visual elements that were used — with minimal motion and on-screen time.

Storyboard and Development

During the creation of the storyboard, I knew I had to establish these contrasts through type and motion. In this scene, Elastigirl/Helen is devastated that her husband quit his job and resumed his superhero work despite the risks this puts on himself and his family. I also used Sequel Sans (Regular and Wide) as her typeface to represent her conformity from independent feminist attitude to a more traditionalist mindset as a wife and mother. I wanted to amplify this with relatively slower animations, gaussian blur effects to signify disorientation & questioning as well as cooler, duller colours.

As for Edna — after witnessing Helen’s breakdown — she is bewildered and demands that she pull herself together because she is the famed Elastigirl. As she is a fashion designer, I thought it was appropriate to use the typeface Couturier Poster, a contemporary Didot-inspired serif typeface. Her dialogue is faster-paced and annunciates her words more dynamically so quicker transitions, motion blur, more variation in type weights, higher colour contrast and vibrancy were applied.