This is a type design and motion graphics project that I've been calling The Spires or Spires Face. The project originated when I was asked to design a poster for a 2014 show by the bands A Minor Forest and The Spires, that took place in Ventura, CA, subsequently leading to the design a full set of characters and numerals, and to these experiments with animation, which I've been working on intermittently since 2015.
Although each one starts and stops at the same place, the animation is made up of different "segments" that were animated at different times, with "The Fires" being the oldest, from 2015, and "Balloon Drop" the most recent, completed in 2018. A couple of segments have been dropped along the way, for being too boring, or too much like another one. The sequence in which they appear in the current animation is 01. The Spires, 02. Card trick, 03. Balloon drop, 04. The fires, 05. Falling icicles, 06. Spectrum analyzer, and 07. Floating jello.
Spires Face, designed in 2015.
This is the poster that started this project. Shortly after I was commissioned to design it, I had the idea of composing letterforms out of the pyramidal forms, thinking that those colored with shades of green would suggest trees, while shades of gray would suggest either mountains or architectural structures—but either way, spires. Choosing to color the date as flames and the venue name as ice was part of the metal process that led to the video above.
I shared this project at the July 2018 Type Thursday San Francisco, and received a very positive and encouraging response. Thank you to everyone there, and especially those giving feedback!
A small number of prints of the poster are still available. This was an edition limited to 50 hand-numbered and signed posters. It is a digital archival print using 8-color UltraChrome pigment-based inks, and the dimensions are 17" x 22" ( 43cm x 56cm). $35 each or two for $60.
