While I consider myself somewhat adept at helming video projects together as a writer, director, cinematographer, camera operator, and in other on set production capacities, my ability to handle editing/post production work is considerably hindered due to my lack of experience in those roles. My limited access to high quality soft/hardware in the past made this process difficult today - this includes graphic design and font selection for title cards and thumbnails.
After learning the concepts of Concordant and Contrasting font design, I selected a thumbnail I created for an Advanced Video Production class film; a scene recreation from Marvel’s Daredevil (A show I have already mentioned on this eportfolio once before in my previous blog post). In this original thumbnail, along with the logo from the official series, I used the “Chiller” font for the text that I had created - colored in red and outlined in burgundy. It is a miscellaneous font that is a bit cartoonish in terms of style, and is farm-fresh in terms of modern fonts created for most online licensing, but it strikes a similar vibe to Daredevil’s opening titles - where every New York symbol is born out of literal bloodshed. There is a similar comic style to the font they used for the Daredevil text that makes the match between the two complimentary. Both are sans-serif, which makes their match even better - but both are still fairly legible. The fonts in tandem communicate a touch of grittiness against the symmetrical and clean backdrop, reflecting the nature of the show for which the project is connected to in a contrasting way.
In my redesign, I chose a miscellaneous font made by an amateur online typographer, based on the font created for the film adaptation of Daredevil that predates the Marvel Netflix series I typically reference. This “Daredevil 03” font, when compared to the use of “Chiller”, arguably crosses the line in terms of what would be described as contrasting instead of conflicting. It is a font that is a hybrid between serif and sans serif, since it’s sharp points on certain letters act as partial serifs. Its straight edge style wants to be on the cutting edge of modern typeface, but feels permanently stuck in retro like “bauhaus”, thoroughly reflecting the early 2000’s period it originates in. While “Daredevil 03” is more straight edge when compared to the current, curvy counterpart from the Netflix series, they both are more legible as a whole when compared to the combination with the “Chiller” font due to their thickness and color. I believe that this font is actually more successful at communicating the grunge and off-balance feel that reflects the tension between the characters in the scene.
In terms of my design process, I wanted both fonts to frame the top and bottom of the background - keeping the characters and the Daredevil logo at the heart of the frame. I also wanted the words to fit neatly within the background composition. In both cases, the CRAP method gives the “Chiller” and “Daredevil 03” a good balance between standing out and blending in; they have more than enough contrast from the official Daredevil logo to add variety, the colors, typeface shapes, and spatial relations/kerning makes for great repetition, and both the alignment and proximity of the text from top to bottom and left to right fits in well with the background shot’s vertical and horizontal lines - such as the “from” being framed not only by the TV but by Matt and Karen on opposite sides of the table, and the Daredevil logo being closer to the season/episode designation than the “scene recreation” title at the top. I’m fortunate this class and this assignment made me rethink my font choices when I first created the thumbnail, as I ended up using the redesign for the official upload on my channel.
To view it, you can click the links below, or check it out along with the other works in my filmography on this site!
https://youtu.be/ABLwPqKnyNo
Comments