What is typography? This series of typographic explorations uses Your Name by Makoto Shinkai as

source material to investigate how typography alone can communicate rhythm, hierarchy, emotion,

and narrative. 

 

Progressing from typographic fundamentals to increasingly expression compositions, the exploration demonstrates that typography is more than arranging letters on a page. 

 

This project follows Professor Peter Wong’s typographic methodology, an exercise that has been refined over more than two decades. I began with a four column grid before gradually learning when and how to break it. Within it, I explored hierarchy through primary, secondary, and tertiary information. Across six cumulative stages, each step introduced a new design challenge: weight, rules, multiple typefaces, texture, type with imagery, and finally imagery alone. Rather than aiming for total legibility, the focus was on understanding rhythm, hierarchy, and expression. 

 

Using music unrelated to the original soundtrack encouraged the motion piece to communicate the story through typography itself rather than relying on the audience’s existing emotional association with the film’s score. 

 

Since this project, I have come to see typography in a new light. It is what guides people to meaning. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but this project taught me that typography can do the opposite. A single word, when thoughtfully designed, can become a thousand pictures.