5 Awesome Fight Club Typography Experiments

Posted August 17th, 2011 / By Tom Peters in Typography

The 1999 American movie Fight Club, often described as a coming of age film, is a mind-boggling flick that goes beyond Brad Pitt. So what does Fight Club and typography have in common? The challenge to try to piece things together!

And as action packed as the film’s explosive ending, typography requires the same sweat and blood to express ideas with text. In fact, the movie’s unusual storytelling gimmicks and cool camera tricks are a first-rate inspiration to experiment with typography.

Kinetic Typography Experiments

The synthesis of words and animation define kinetic typography. In simple terms, it is aptly described as “moving text” and is usually developed using standard animation programs. The following Fight Club-inspired kinetic typography artworks intensely echo the feel and dynamics of the film.

Fight Club – Chemical Burn by Sebastian Jaramillo

This kinetic typography from the San Francisco based web developer evokes the chaos and order from the chemical burn scene in Fight Club. Behind the animation are the voices of Tyler Dunden (Brad Pitt) and The Narrator (Edward Norton) synced dramatically with the rhythmic appearance and movement of words.

Fight Club Intonation Typography by Craig Chupinsky

Motion media animator Craig Chupinsky created this typographic visualization of The Narrator’s (Edward Norton) introduction of himself and his job as a projectionist. Like the character, Craig starts the animation with a monotonic style and in-between surprises the audience with splices of wit and humour. Keep your eyes open.¬†

Typography Posters

The stationary characteristic of typography posters makes it a challenge for artists to make sure that the type is both legible and artistic at the same time, whilst conveying an idea or emotion in 2D.  With the absence of animation and auditory features, the following posters are equally laudable for successfully delivering slices of emotion and unique impressions of the movie.

Fight Club Typography by Mauroof Ibrahim

Animator Mauroof Ibrahim used typography and vectors to render the movie’s feel in this poster. Although unlike its kinetic counterparts, this Fight Club inspired creation injects movement through a cause and effect impression of graphics and text.

Fight Club by Jerod Gibson

The role of a bar soap in Fight Club is well highlighted on this art print by creative director Jerod Gibson. The artist used the element itself to contain the most striking dialogues in David Fincher’s film. Though lacking in movement as compared to Ibrahim’s work, this poster goes against the grain of action-themed styles that explicitly pronounces Fight Club as an inspiration.

The Eight Rules of Fight Club by Drew Mander

In typography, the rule of emphasis is exhibited with the exaggeration of words with a font in a different style from the rest of the content. And graphic designer Drew Mander applied this commandment to present the Eight Rules of Fight Club.

Like Gibson, Mander did not engage extra visuals to interplay with the words. Instead, this typographic poster employed the texture of a crumpled paper in the background and an almost subliminal scratched effect on some of the letters, as if they got into an alphabetical fight themselves.

Tom Peters is a creative writer for Timeshare Resales blog, the one-stop destination for inspired travelers.