What are Motion Fonts?
This manifesto defines Motion Fonts – a classification of typography where both the type design and the concept of movement are integral to the creation process and remain essential during the usage of the font.
Categorization: A typographic classification
While Gerrit Noordzij defined typography in his book “The Stroke” as “writing with prefabricated letters,” this also applies to Motion Fonts. However, in Motion Fonts, not only the shape is predefined, but also the concept of its movement.
Condition: Movement is embedded
Movement is embedded in the font file, within technical and conceptual limits.
Concept: Every glyph has a choreography
Movement is conceived at a local level, at the level of the individual glyph.
Practice: Designed to move
During ideation and design, whether planned or discovered through the process, movement is an integral part of the concept. The intended use is likewise conceived for movement.
Why Motion Fonts matter:
Motion Fonts are built on the idea that a font is not only a static carrier of text but also a medium of visual transformation. While variable letterforms offer shape transformation, they are conventionally designed to give users more flexibility in selecting static variations. The idea behind Motion Fonts, by contrast, is that movement is an integral part of the font’s concept. Even though these fonts, from a technical standpoint, cannot move by themselves (like static fonts, they require an interface to do anything at all), the conceptual blueprint for movement is already embedded within the font file. In observing existing projects, many fonts that integrate movement are still labeled as “experimental variable fonts.” This manifesto aims to provide a clear definition to distinguish Motion Fonts as an autonomous classification within typography and to enrich our collective understanding of what they can and should become. In this way, these fonts which were confined to their experimental sandbox can now step into the spotlight as fully recognized Motion Fonts.
Ongoing process
This manifesto is grounded in ongoing dialogue. It originated as part of Simon Truffer’s bachelor’s thesis, Motion Fonts – Type Moving Forward↗, which explored the potential of Motion Fonts and led to an initial draft of this manifesto.
This draft was shared in an online document, inviting type designers to engage in dialogue and offer critique. Through that exchange, its ideas were refined and evolved into the manifesto presented here.
Initiated by
In Dialogue With
This manifesto was shaped through ongoing dialogue, critique, and feedback with the following people:
Edgar Walthert↗, Font Spectrum↗
Travis Kochel, Future Fonts↗, Vectro↗
Lena Weber↗, MonoModular-Typefoundry↗
Anne-Dauphine Borione, Daytona Mess↗
Arthur Reinders Folmer, Typearture↗
Many thanks to everyone who contributed to shaping this manifesto.
This conversation remains open.
Continue the dialogue