Hi, I’m Matt Balara.I solve design problems with my head.

I remembered some lovely animated typography this evening, went to see it again, and through the wonder of web 2.0 magic, I’d suddenly discovered a whole YouTube subculture of folks who are animating dialogue from films. Here’s the most impressive stuff I found.

Warning: none of it’s visually unsafe, but some of the audio is NSFW. Put your headphones on.

“Marcellus Wallace” from Pulp Ficiton

The one that started all of this for me. It went around in emails ages ago, and I’ve looked at it again and again ever since. By the talented Jarratt Moody, who has more goodies on his own site.

“Choose” from Trainspotting

Pretty wild mix of fonts here, but somehow it works, and the timing’s spot on.

“Nick the Greek” from Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels

Lovely feeling of 3D space, and the graphic illustrations add a bunch. The spelling could do with a check, though.

“The Rules” from Fight Club

The grungy background, wobbly camera and type make for a nice change.

“Jesus” from The Big Lebowski

One of the best speeches in the movie, and here the colours and layout express the different voices well. The background colour changes also create a good visual rhythm.

“The Perfect Girl” form The Wedding Crashers

I haven’t seen the movie, but the animations nice and smooth. But better than the type animation are the little object details, especially the “dating” table.

“Pancakes House” from Fargo

Love the palette, the textures also add a lot, but what really makes this one are the silhouette illustrations. I must however admit that I’m getting a little sick of Helvetica. Are students so conservative these days?

Last But Not Least…

I know, it’s not from a movie, but I found this so spectacularly well done that I just had to cram it in here.

I don’t do type animation, and likely never will, but I enjoy looking at it and am sure it gets different creative juices pumping in my head. Andy Budd reminded me that we web designers often live in a fenced in little world, and that we’re cheating ourselves of a world of inspiration. When you look over the fence, where do you look?

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I’ve enjoyed a moderate amount of success as a web-designer, but something’s been burning in my conscience for many years now, and it’s finally time to come clean. I can’t claim the credit for anything I’ve ever designed. None of it.

When I was a young and fumbling student at VCU, so many years ago, I met a new friend. He can’t talk, so I don’t know his name, but I call him “Little Designer”. I take him with me to work every day, and when I’m pushing pixels, sitting in meetings or presenting to clients, he’s sitting under my hat (yes, that’s why I wear a hat every day all day), pulling my hair, dictating my every action, and making sure noone ever knows that I can’t design. Although being discovered as a big fake is probably the deepest fear of many designers, I can tell you it’s like a breath of fresh air to get this off of my chest…

Okay, okay, hopefully by now you know where this is going. I saw Ratatouille on the weekend. If I had to name the most creative company of the last 10 years, I’d say “Pixar” without hesitation. Ratatouille won’t change your life (but what will these days?) but it’s fast-paced, full of interesting characters, the story’s great, and best of all, it’s “I can’t breathe any more” funny. Go see it. If you regret seeing it afterwards, well, I’d be in fear for your soul.

What do you think? Leave a comment…