A colleague is doing her Masters thesis on some aspect of Kinetic Typography. It was a rather new term to me but a quick Google search turned up some research done some time ago by Suguru Ishizaki at Carnegie Mellon. Their project summary states, “Text is no longer limited to static forms in digital communication. Typographic form can change in size, color, or position in order to better express its content. ” Hmm… doesn’t necessarily sound like anything new to me. One just has to look at all the hype flash designers to see evidence of that. Now I am sure I am missing something and I’ll keep looking. At the very least the work that Suguru Ishizaki and his (her?) students have completed is interesting and an effective introduction to the field.

View examples of kinetic typography created by students in Kinetic Information Display: Kinetic Typography