"A page of a book is like a human face. Look at a page by Hemingway and compare it with Sterne and Marcel Proust. They are different typographical beings. But force upon them those ragged edges, and the influence of the author's style on the physical aspect of the page, their typographical physiognomy will disappear. No, unjustified setting is a sort of 'gleichschaltung through diversity,' a very phoney diversity. Produced methodically by chance. For the comfort of thee keyboard, and not for the comfort of the eye. The eye tolerates quite well thin spaces, and middle spaces, and thick spaces. There is absolutely no reason why we should be more puritan than our eye is and affect extreme strickness by using middle spaces only. On the contrary, by using them all, but intelligently (plus an occasional hair or a nut), one should be able to justify any line to a fixed length so that the reading eye will proceed quietly to the right, even if it meets on its way an odd nut or a mutton. It is the end of the line that halts it an sends it back to the left. With justified setting this scanning business is painless, and the eye doesn't take more notice of it than the foot does when you stroll along a promenade thinking of things that have nothing to do with walking. But when you force upon the eye that haphazard rhythm created by those paths of uneven length the process of reading becomes something self-conscious, like walking on crazy pavement where your foot doesn't know how long the next step will have to be. Poest are well aware of it all. That's why the breakline is one of the main weapons in their arsenal. They know that the end of a line, the eye halts, the lungs fill with air, mind is in suspense, the ear muffles the echo of the sound of the last syllable and prepares to receive the new string of rhythmical noises..."
Although Themerson's writing from 1965 take the idea of the composed static text set for the printed page it is important to remember that even in the world of dynamic text that rhythm created for the reader does more than conveys information but also creates a mood, a dramatic dynamic between the viewer and the viewed. In the range of interactive typography this element of poetic rhythm can be easily lost to the use of flashy segues and graphic interpretation that do nothing for the feeling nor convenience of the information and act solely as a form of decoration. In recent years the highest purveyor of this decorative dynamic text can be seen most clearly in what I will call "eXtreme" text. This is in league with advertisers gearing their ads to a young crowd by skewing the image of the product, which is pointed out by comedian David Cross here. This use of eXtreme text is the highest culprit to Bad Flash sites.
It should come to no surprise that the first in my list of Flash sites (I'll be going from worse to best here) is created by no less than Mountain Dew for there range of custom art bottles, known as Green Label Art.
You can experience this atrocity to web design here. Although I must warn you now that it is so incredibly weighed down in Flash effects that it may require you to force quit your internet browser. The use of overly heavy effects, music, flashy graphics that do nothing to convey any information combine to make this one of the worst web sites I have ever been to. Also let me take a moment to address the question "Why would a website designer choose this option?" Easy, because they or whoever is making the decisions is NOT a designer.
Our next look is at the Disney site for Pirates of the Caribbean 3.
This site loads slowly but at least not as bad as my previous example. The site is fairly convoluted and requires the viewer to interact with certain aspects in order to enter other parts of the site. It has a high entertainment level and even though it may be a bit heavy handed on the flash I must admit it is fairly fitting for the subject matter and conveys the mood of the subject matter.
Now not all Disney flash sites are that bad and one of my favorites to date is for the up and coming Pixar release "Wall-E." I'm honestly really looking forward to this film.
Here we see Wall-E become an integral part of conveying the information and mood of the site that for Pixar tends to be humorous and appropriately fun for all ages. I don't know if I can give a set loading time for a site, if the site is worth going to I might wait. In Wall-E's case I would wait, in Mountain Dew's case not so much.
What about Flash as a conveyor of information but not so much on the interactive side? Well let’s take a look at Hoefler Frere-Jones, who uses a simple Flash animation to advertise their latest font release Archer.
Typography.com is the home to Hoefler & Frere-Jones and acts as a storefront for the fonts designed by the type foundry. The simple use of he Flash Animation show the selling points of their latest release without bogging down the site with unnecessary decoration that would make interacting with it tiresome and frustrating.
Lastly we come to what I can find as probably the best use of Flash in a website at the AIGA design archives.
The design archives are simple yet dynamic at the same time, acting as place holders in which we can use to organize as well as peruse the work collected from past AIGA design annuals. The ability to hover over a certain piece and then let the information become apparent to what the thumbnail connects to is one of my favorite web interactions to date. The use of Flash in this case became a vehicle in order to create a simpler more dynamic site instead of its polar opposite in the realm of eXtreme text and flashy graphics that some people (usually in advertising) find to be ways of YELLLING at the general public thinking that this is a great way to get someone to notice you. Honestly unless you are engulfed in flames I don’t' really think there is ever a reason to run around screaming your head off like many of these "Bad Flash" sites often do.
We must become adapt not only in the classical forms of proper typography as proposed by Themerson and be able to properly and objectively design with the reader in mind but also begin to realize that this conveying of information in a rhythmic manner adheres itself to dynamic interactive texts as well. Today we must look into the eyes and soul of the human face of the interactive as well as printed pages.
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