Experimental Typography for the Web artwork

Experimental Typography for the Web

Intermediate
Course

Make type animations from scratch! Learn how to bend and mould typography for use in your own websites using P5.js.

Purchase this course for $149

Or... get a discount by building a bundle with our learning paths!

Want to know how to work with variable fonts and how to create kinetic typographic animations for websites? If yes, this creative, go-at-your-own-pace course is for you. We've created a series of projects for this that are all about getting weird with type.

Across 6 hours, you'll learn how to add variable fonts to your websites, plus how to animate and make them interactive. You'll also work with P5.js, a Javascript library for creative coding, to bend and mould typography.

You'll also create your very own kinetic typography animations from scratch, be able to add them to websites and make them user-interactive.

This is a great next step for students who already have some knowledge of HTML and CSS, or have completed our Foundation HTML, CSS + Javascript or Javascript for Designers courses.

What you’ll learn

How to add variable typography to websites and change it

How to add CSS animations and transitions to web type

Working with P5.js within an in-browser canvas, even if you've never coded before

How to think about and create your own kinetic typography animations from scratch

How to let your users change and interact with your beautiful kinetic type animations

How to break apart typography into its base components to rework it completely

What you’ll get

Real world projects – Projects and code that you can alter and remix to add to your own sites and portfolio

Access the community – Join our Slack and connect with thousands of SuperHi students and alumni

Continued help – Help from our expert teachers and educators with years of experience in the industry

Resources – Resources to get you started and going post-course

6 hours of video lessons – Practical, go-at-your-own pace learning

Who this course is for

Anyone who wants to learn how to work with variable typography or create their own interactive, kinetic typography from scratch.

This is a beginner course when it comes to page transitions, though we would recommend basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and a bit of Javascript before starting. If you don’t have this just yet, trying our Learn To Code Now book, or taking either our Foundation HTML, CSS + JS course or our Javascript for Designers course will help you feel as prepared as possible.

What you’ll need

A computer (Windows, Mac or Linux) with the latest version of Chrome installed and a broadband internet connection. That’s everything!

Want to try our teaching before signing up? Join our free 'Plan, Design + Code Your First Website' course!

Syllabus

Chapter 1

Playground Agency

In the first project, a splash page for an upcoming digital agency, we learn how to add web typography to a site and how to play around with variable type using CSS animations.

Chapter 2

Caroline Wade

For this portfolio site project, we extend upon variable type with the Bandeins Strange typeface which has two levels of variability. We also add in hover states and a script to change the type on scroll.

Chapter 3

01 01

For most kinetic type animations, we need to draw in a canvas to be able to manipulate our type. In this fun project, we copy and paste our text so we can play around with its width.

Chapter 4

aaaaaaaaa

In this project, we're going to take some text and play with its distortion within a grid to splice it up.

Chapter 5

Good Morning

For this project, we take kinetic type to its extremes by making the grid very small and by letting our users change the text and the speed of animation.

Chapter 6

Out of Office

Sometimes, we want to be able to let our users have control over the animation. We add timeline scrubbing in this project along with an animation loop.

Chapter 7

Brutalust

In our brutalism fansite, Brutalust, we add in a typer-style effect to our HTML-content using vanilla Javascript's setInterval looping to change and randomize text.

Chapter 8

Dani Lewis

In our final project, we take drawing to its extreme by sampling a font and redrawing it with circles and lines, and then using vectors to add distortion based on our mouse position.

Your instructors

Our instructors have decades of professional experience, have spoken at international conferences and have won countless web design awards.

Rik Lomas

Rik (he/him) is a Mancunian coder, teacher and CEO of SuperHi. He was the co-founder of Steer (a code school in London) and has taught several thousand people to code. He is a bit too old to be posting memes on our social media and recently featured as a Sour Patch Kid in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

Jake Brussel Faria

Jake is a New York-based freelance designer and coder working as Arcades Studio. Previously he was a content creator as part of the lovely SuperHi team.

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Still looking around?

View our growing collection of resources, articles and tutorials. We're adding new things to read, learn and watch every week!

INTERVIEW

Catching Up With... Kelsey Gilbert-Kreiling

Agency co-founder, podcast host, and author Kelsey Gilbert-Kreiling chats to us about finding small acts of creativity to unblock your creative spirit, working with celebrity clients, and her latest work: publishing a book and a course.

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How to Land Your First (or Next) Remote Job

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FAQs

If you're comfortable working with a computer, then yes!

Learning new and improving your existing skills is about being patient with yourself, building up your knowledge, developing confidence through practice, and with time. We've seen our students around the world do it, and so can you.

Our beginner courses are designed for people new to the subjects. They grow your understanding so you grasp everything you need to start applying your new skills and will also give you a path to dig deeper if you want.

Our teaching style is practical and straightforward and you'll have support from our expert instructors and community for as long as you need.

Still not sure if learning to code is right for you? Take our free Plan, Design + Code Your First Website course or dive into our First Steps to Code guide.

We have quite a lot of students that join us and have done some coding before but want to build up confidence and techniques.

In order to help get you where you'd like to be, have a look at the sites below to see which course you can make from scratch, without any help at all.

Baker & Brown – If you struggle to make this website from scratch, don't worry! We recommend you start off with our Foundation, HTML, CSS + Javascript course.

Jenna Buchholz – If you struggle to make this website from scratch, it's all good! We recommend you start off with our Javascript for Designers course.

Super Shapes – If you struggle to make this website from scratch, have no fear! We recommend you start off with our Advanced CSS + Javascript course.

All of our courses are unlocked and available for students to start their learning and go at their own pace. We do have a suggested weekly structure for some courses, which helps some students stay on track. However, you're definitely free to jump ahead or take as long as you need!

As soon as you checkout and pay, you'll have all the courses you paid for, in your student dashboard available to you immediately. If you're busy and can't start right away - no worries, you can pick it back up later.

At SuperHi, we provide online courses designed for creatives and made for everyone. Take a course on Code, Design, or Project Management 😊

The proof is in the pudding! Our students go on to make their own beautiful sites and some of their stunning work have won digital design awards. Take a look at our Hall of Fame to see some of the sites our students have built, many of which had only taken our Foundation course!

If you're a SuperHi student or alumni and would like to submit your project to be included in our Hall of Fame, please feel free to submit it here.

Yes, we do! All you'd need to do is send the links to your completed projects over to hi@superhi.com at the end of your course. We will review them, provide feedback if necessary, and then issue your certificate!

All our course videos are taught using the SuperHi Editor, but you'll be able to apply everything you'll learn to a code editor of your choice. Many students go on to use other code editors, for example, if their workplace has an existing standard.

Our SuperHi Editor is designed with many smart features to help avoid wasted time looking for things like a typo or missing bracket (which is why we made it!), but the same code concepts apply to any editor.

Yes! You can use your own custom third-party domains and connect them to your sites built with our SuperHi Editor. Additionally, all SuperHi sites come with free SSL Certificates for added protection.

Here's more information on how to connect a third-party domain