Skip to main content
Intellect

Words that make sense: Visual arts film a sensory display of typography

Short piece serves as opening titles to Typophile Film Festival

  • The three-and-a-half-minute film serves as the opening titles to an international film festival on the use of type and typography
  • It was created by visual arts professor Brent Barson and 11 of his graphic design students
  • No computer generated images were used to make the film
  • Barson and his students have made the opening titles for Typophile for all five years the film festival has run

This short film, created by BYU visual arts professor Brent Barson and 11 of his graphic design students, serves as the opening titles to the Typophile Film Festival, an international film festival that features short films about the use of type.

Barson has been in charge of making the opening titles for the film festival for all five years it has run and has won numerous awards for past opening titles.

Looking to brand this year’s installment as the 5th version of the film festival, Barson and his students came up with a theme based on the five senses, and how they feed human creativity.

This opening title sequence took three months to create and involved working with several tricky materials: Jell-O, squash, laser-cut food and purple fur, to name a few.

The process also took a lot of patience: During the filming of a scene focusing on the sense of touch, student Deven Stephens’ wife, Michelle, held her hand up against a glass shelf without moving it or taking it out of the upright position for two and a half hours.

To learn more about the detailed filmmaking process and to see previous versions of the opening titles, click here.

The Typophile Film Festival screened in Portland, Ore., in August and is now headed to design and typography conferences in Phoenix (Oct. 23) and Mexico City (Oct. 29) later this month.

Related Articles

data-content-type="article"

Q&A with President Reese on “dare to be different”

May 16, 2024
In this Q&A series with President Reese, he shares more about the seven initiatives he shared in his 2023 inaugural response and how they apply to BYU employees
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Notable achievements and scholarship wins highlight BYU awards season 2024

May 10, 2024
While it’s impossible to recognize every award-winning student, these highlights capture the considerable work and creative capabilities of our Cougars during the past academic year.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

BYU professors using game-changing strategies to prevent injuries, promote wellbeing in youth athletes

May 07, 2024
BYU professor Matt Seeley created the Strong Youth Project after watching all five of his children participate in youth sports. While he loves the many invaluable benefits of youth sports, he laments that his children often miss family activities for practice or face pressures to compete in sports during the offseason. These concerns have fueled his collaboration with professors from disciplines across BYU’s campus to improve organized sport experiences for youth, parents and coaches.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText=