Motion
Typography
Motion is a typeface problem
Most brand motion looks wrong for a reason nobody names in the review: the movement and the letterforms disagree about what kind of thing this is. You can feel it instantly and it is almost never on the feedback list.
Letterforms already imply a speed
High-contrast type with fine hairlines implies precision and control. Put it on a bouncy spring with overshoot and the two halves of the message contradict each other. A heavy grotesque with blunt terminals can take a hard, fast ease that would shatter a delicate serif.
Before choosing an easing curve I now look at the type and ask what speed it is already suggesting. The answer is usually obvious once the question is asked, and it stops the endless fiddling with curve handles that goes nowhere.
Pick a tempo and hold it everywhere
On the Pulse identity we built every animation on a 180 beats-per-minute grid, because that is the cadence the running club trains at. Nothing in the finished work announces this. But every transition lands on the same underlying pulse, and the system feels coherent in a way that would have taken months of taste to achieve by eye.
Any consistent tempo will do this. The value is in there being one at all, not in which one you chose.
Duration is a hierarchy signal
Longer is not more premium, it is more important. If everything on a page takes 800 milliseconds, nothing on the page is emphasised and the whole thing just feels slow. Reserve the long durations for the one element that matters and let everything else get out of the way quickly.
Previous article
Next article
Got a brand that deserves to be remembered?
I take on a limited number of projects each quarter so every one gets my full attention. Tell me what you’re building and let’s see if we’re a fit.
