Best 47 Videos of Kinetic Typography You Should Watch

Imagine words dancing across the screen—sometimes slow, deliberate, other times punchy and energetic.

This is the heart of kinetic typography, a blend of motion and text to convey ideas and evoke emotions like no static words could. It’s the art that makes presentations pop, social media sing, and lyric videos unforgettable.

In a world constantly vying for our attention, kinetic typography cuts through the noise, engaging viewers and delivering messages with impact.

Whether you’re looking to spice up your brand storytelling or add flair to multimedia projects, understanding this dynamic form of visual communication is a game-changer.

By the end of this read, you’ll unwrap the secrets behind creating compelling animated text effects. The journey will take you through the essentials—from the animation principles that breathe life into letters to the seamless text transitions that keep eyes glued to the screen.

Prepare to dive into a world where typeface isn’t just about fonts and sizes, but a powerful tool in the art of storytelling and design.

Kinetic typography videos you should see

New York Times: Turkish Edition

This kinetic text video is their one minute advertisement for the launch of Turkish Edition of The New York Times.

They constructed typographic versions of the most recognizable landmarks in Manhattan and Istanbul, and created a compact tour taking the audience from the New York Harbor all the way to the Bosphorus.

Actual pages from the first issue of the newspaper were used to create the textures in this typographical video’s scenes. The financial news page became NYSE and Wall Street, entertainment news turned into Times Square, and so on.

Make it better

Flickermood 2.0

A film by Sebastian Lange – next level experimental typographic orgy. Direction and Animation by Sebastian Lange. Music by FORSS (aka Eric Wahlforss, CTO Soundcloud). Flickermood was basically all done in Adobe After Effects.

Nick the Greek

Typography animation taken from the film Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Conan O’Brien Kinetic Typography

This Kinetic Typography project was created from the dialogue of Conan O’Brien’s final episode of The Tonight Show on NBC.

In this farewell address, he describes his feelings towards NBC and the situation at hand. His personality exudes positivity and humor allowing this dialogue to describe his character very well. Even through the hardships of leaving NBC he promotes hard work and kindness.

Mythbusters Kinetic Type

A kinetic type project completed in one week entirely in after effects. The audio clip is from the Mythbusters back in 2006 in their holiday special where Adam walks us through his rube Goldberg device.

CRAZY ENOUGH – Title Sequence

Rockwell

FUTURA LE SPECIMEN ANIME

70 Years of Revolutionary Protest Music

College typography animations project celebrating popular song lyrics over the past century. Being a kinetic type project, the use of imagery was discouraged.

The author chose to detail some of the most powerful protest songs from the 1930’s – 2000’s, Bille Holiday’s Strange Fruit (1939), Buffalo Springfield’s For What Its Worth (1968) and Radiohead’s Ideoteque (2000). This typography video was a successful submission for the ISTD competition.

The Social Network Kinetic Typography

A kinetic typography piece of the “Full Attention” clip from the 2010 film The Social Network by David Fincher.

MyWorkster

Kinetic Typography – D-Tronics

Typewear Reel

Typewear is a small Mexican company of design-themed t-shirts with great talent and great designs. Being a fan of their work and looking for a good project to work on himself, he came to them with the idea of making a motion reel based on their designs.

He did this typographic animation thinking it was a win-win situation that could get good publicity for both them and himself.

It’s been a long month of late nights and not much sleep but that doesn’t really matter when you’re working on something you really like: a great looking kinetic text example.

Easter

This typography video is a visual manifestation of Sharon Irving’s poetry. Made in After Effects with the help of Helvetica.

Kinetics : HD Typography motion graphics

“Kinetics” was an exploration into human movement and relating it to illustrative typographical elements. To achieve the footage to show human motion at the level needed they shot with a scientific high-speed camera at 500 frames per second in HD on a green screen for the performance.

The subject of break-dancing was used because of its raw beauty of illustrating human motion. Typography is used as an illustrative element in this kinetic text video. The typeface Didot was chosen because it combined a modern feel with classic serifs.

Typography

Gill Sans

This motion typography (in french) is about the Gill Sans. It sums up everything about that font.

WHO KILLED THE MUSIC?

MC Yogi – Vote For Hope

“Vote For Hope” was written to encourage and inspire the hip hop generation—and everyone—to get involved, and contribute their time, energy, creativity, and other resources to be the change they want to see in the world.

They have been inspired by the artistic and musical contributions that have been pouring out across the nation in support of Barack Obama’s historic campaign. Vote for Hope is their offering to this creative movement. It is their way of adding their small voice to the collective voice of millions of Americans calling for a change.

Compassion

Kinetic typography project for Heartland Community Church about their compassion fund and what you can do to help.

Creations Rely On Possibilities

What makes a successful typography animation? There is a mystique around art and artists that suggest that great art comes from a streak of inspiration deep within the mind’s creative center.

However, it takes more than a stroke of genius to make successful typographic animations. The idea itself is just the first step toward achieving this goal.

Letting this idea grow, one must be able to open up emotionally and intellectually. Creating typographic animations is also about understanding the basics and possibilities of motion and visual effects. After all, Creations Rely On Possibilities

Inch By Inch

Dynamic typography animation based on Al Pacino’s Inch By Inch speech from Any Given Sunday.

Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases

Amusing health propaganda trailer on the dangers of sneezing.

jbfm

Web Video – ‘Beck’s Berlin Wall’

An animated typography video commissioned by Beck’s for Beck’s Berlin Sessions, chronicling the rise of electronic music since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Monk Typography

Why so serious?

Future // Kinetic typography

G34.3

Done for Astronomy class. The background information is that G.34.3 is a giant molecular cloud in the universe that has a large, dense core. Because of this complex molecules are able to form, in this case ethyl alcohol. Audio is from the History Channel show The Universe.

Howard Baines

A kinetic text video that the author did for Howard/Baines – A Web Design Consultancy based in London. The typography video basically explains who they are, what they do, and why they are better than the others. The author never thought he would use Georgia in a motion graphics project, but he was really pleased how this turned out!

The Rumble in The Jungle

aviaT

A court scene from The Aviator, for Martin Scorsese, is presented in a way type in motion can be artistically as or more expressive and interesting than cinematography.

Usual suspects Kinetic typography

H.E.L.P Kinetic Typography

Kinetic Typography – Willy Wonka

Inglourious Basterds: Killing Nazis

Blade Runner Kinetic Type

Kinetic Typography and its origins

Kinetic typography, like many movie stars, made its debut on the big screen, where it made a huge impression and quickly caught fire.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have dated the first use of kinetic text to the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock film “North by Northwest.” Where the opening credits were depicted as mobile, presenting the first ever use of animated typography. This revolutionary typographical video, used to list the cast of North by Northwest was invented to set the mood and setting of the movie in how the text moved about on screen.

The trend quickly caught on. The following year the movie Psycho featured kinetic text and soon after it was not uncommon to see movies and television shows use animated text to present credits and in advertisements. Most notably kinetic typography in advertising was used in the 2009 Pepsi “Refresh Everything” campaign (now called “Pepsi Pulse”) with a renewed logo. The new design – featuring a logo in place of the letter ‘o’ – appeared everywhere from television to the internet using kinetic text.

More recently the animation font has become a common tool in web design and presentations, not to mention that with the popularity of spoken word videos on YouTube, it has permeated through various generations and is quite popular to date.

Applied Kinetic Typography

The kinetic text is a useful tool, but only if used with a certain purpose in mind. Regardless of its mass appeal, using kinetic text haphazardly can make for unimpressive results.

There are certain applications for which animation text prove to be most effective. This is largely to do with the tone of the project and what the desired purpose is. Some applications of kinetic type include:

Emotional content
Character creation
Grasping attention

The manner of the motion in which the animation font works contributes to achieving the desired effect. Font size can reflect a change in volume, similarly, typography videos can be used to mimic human movement, sound vibrations, and other various movements that create spatial relationships between text.

Kinetic Typography applications

When discussing the practical applications of kinetic typography, there’s more to consider than just purpose.

Firstly, animation font is a video and an online format. There aren’t many uses for Kinetic text in printed projects. Typography viewed online is exposed to audiences for brief amounts of times.

This factors into the length of the animation produced and the complexity of its design are directly linked to the desired purpose of its creation. Whereas larger productions make longer use of kinetic typo, where the viewers are engaged and entertained.

Regardless the typography animation must be easily comprehensible by the target audience, relevant to the purpose of the project and establish an emotional connection with its viewers. Most commonly, kinetic animation typography is used in YouTube videos, educational video series, documentaries and most notably in advertising.

Some common features of kinetic typography include, but aren’t limited to:

Slow motion or fast motion
Stretching or shrinking
Movement in arcs or waves as the text moves along curved paths
Anticipated action; such as a subtle jerk before a sharp movement
Follow through actions that occur post a larger action
Secondary action, when text moves because of something that happens to another element in the frame

Telling a story using Kinetic Type

Kinetic Typography isn’t just putting words and animations together with no purpose at all. Each animation type tells its own story. This is usually based on text, and can actually be supported through various other forms of media, such as pictures, other videos, and graphics.

The connection between Kinetic Typography, Journalism, and storytelling

The kinetic type has one thing going for it that no traditional text can ever accomplish in the same way – it can capture the attention of almost any audience. It is instantly interesting, and if done correctly, will captivate an audience and tell a story far better than just lines of text.

In this age of visuals, videos, and virility, the importance of an attractive and captivating kinetic type can be huge. We are all guilty of watching things that would normally never appeal to us, just because there is a bit of typography animation in the video.

The information isn’t just visually appealing – it has also been cut down to bite-size pieces that can easily be understood and retained by an audience that is constantly on the go. This is why journalists can utilize kinetic typography when they’re sharing a lot of difficult to understand information, particularly the kind that includes big numbers and charts.

How to create a Kinetic Type Animation

In an ideal scenario, if you want to make a typography video, you will need programs like Adobe After Effects. Not only does this broaden your ability to use animation styles and effects, but it also allows you to actually save your type as a video animation.

Another alternative could be saving images and create a movie using various video creator programs, but the process will be long and inefficient and will limit the kind of animations you can use. Here are some tips that’ll help you create typographic videos:

Start out with a plan – if you don’t know what you’re doing, going back and changing things will be a huge, time-consuming process.
Give storyboarding a try – animation is pretty much creating a movie, and any movie needs a general layout that helps you understand what you are going for visually.
Consider your text – it should be short and simple, and you should know what specific words are important so you can emphasize them using kinetic animation.
Get some help using some After Effects typography tutorials explaining how kinetic animations work, which can easily be found online. This will also help your idea for the animation to come together.
Once you are sure what kind of text you are using, you can move on to the audio. Find one that works well, and then proceed to match the animation to your audio.

When you’re selecting the text, always keep in mind that too much text needs to be avoided at all costs. If everything is written down on the actual animation, it is only natural that it will take up everyone’s attention. This is a good thing when the kinetic type is standing on its own, but when there’s a paired narration, things might go sideways.

It’s difficult for people to focus on both things at once, so make sure the animation type complements your narration but doesn’t steal the show from it. If your audiences feel stuck between the two, it’ll just minimize their ability to retain and understand the information that you are giving them. If you still have a lot of text, you can try cutting down the information available at one time – for example, by making the points appear one after the other.

Your design, animation, and styling should be consistent. Now, this doesn’t mean that they should all be the same, but a cohesive slide deck, as mentioned before, is telling a story – which has the same elements. Having an inconsistent style can be distracting, and can take away attention from your purpose. You could use a preset, or prepare a basic deck and then copy the same style for the rest of the slides.

However, too much consistency can make your slides boring – to keep the audience’s attention and to make certain slides stand out, you might need to use different colors, techniques or styles. A good way to do this is to style the topic transition slides in a different way compared to other slides, so your audience is aware that there is a change of pace and a different topic being started at that point.

You can even create kinetic typography with PowerPoint

Here’s how you can do it.

Select the right animation fonts

Fonts are the building blocks of your animation, and deciding the font you’ll use can end up being one of the most important decisions you will need to make.

Like a lot of other designers in the animation world, you might believe that PowerPoint isn’t exactly the best tool to create Kinetic Typography. The fact of the matter is, you might be right; after all, After Effects and programs like it offer a lot more tools. However, PowerPoint is still an effective kinetic typography maker.

If you’re worried about the kind of fonts available to you on PowerPoint, you have no cause for concern. There are hundreds of free fonts available online on Google Fonts, in addition to the hundreds that are already installed on your computer.

Sort out and enter your fonts

It’s almost always a good idea to enter in the words that you will use as different fonts separately. If, for example, you were to use 5 fonts for 5 words, you should create 5 different elements in PowerPoint. Why should you bother doing all this extra work?

You get to change the size, the font, and the styling of each of the elements separately. This makes things as easy as possible while editing.
There is no need to worry about line height, which is a concern when you’re editing text within the same element. As a result, you can edit the spacing between elements with so much ease.
With separate elements in PowerPoint, you can easily apply different styles of animations to each. This allows you to actually create the kinetic type animations you are looking for.
Start animating the elements

If there’s one thing PowerPoint actually has a diverse library of, it’s animations. With different elements, you can apply a number of animations to each and create different animating effects.

You can try out various techniques, and combine animations to see what works for your overall kinetic typography. The use of this random technique will help you come up with the best possible combinations.

One more thing you can do is keeping an eye on the total time that each animation utilizes. You can also try using different alphabets as different elements to bring even more depth to your kinetic type.

FAQ about kinetic typography

What is Kinetic Typography?

Kinetic typography is text—alive, moving, and grooving on-screen. Used everywhere from film titles to web design, it’s a storytelling powerhouse. It transforms plain script into an emotional experience, guiding the viewer through the narrative beat by beat.

How Can Kinetic Typography Enhance My Videos?

Oh, it’s a game-changer! Incorporate text animation software into video content, and watch engagement soar. It adds that oomph—a visual punch that emphasizes your message, often syncing perfectly with audio for that extra kick. Used skillfully, dynamic text keeps viewers hooked way past the first glance.

What Software Do I Need for Creating Kinetic Typography?

Adobe After Effects tops the chart. It’s like the Swiss Army knife for motion graphics. Other hot choices? Adobe Premiere Pro has sweet typography tools as well. Want something simpler? There are dozens of apps and online tools arriving on the scene that make text motion design more accessible.

Is Kinetic Typography Only Used in Videos?

Not at all. Kinetic typography finds a home in web design too, greeting visitors with punchy site intros. You’ll find it in presentations, product launches, and even e-learning materials. It’s a versatile trick, injecting life into any medium that can sport motion.

What’s the Learning Curve Like for Mastering Kinetic Typography?

It’s a mixed bag. The basics? You’ll pick ’em up if you dedicate a few hours, especially with countless kinetic type tutorials at your fingertips. But truly mastering the craft—a blend of perfect timing and design sense—can take a little longer. Patience is key here.

Can Kinetic Typography Improve Branding for My Business?

Absolutely. It adds personality to your brand storytelling. Imagine your brand values literally bouncing off the screen. From sleek and professional to wild and wacky, the style of your animated text can mirror the essence of your brand, leaving a lasting impression that still images can’t match.

How Does Audio Sync with Kinetic Typography?

Audiovisual synchronization is an art form here. You can make words pop exactly as a beat drops, or softly appear with a narrative voiceover. The right sync creates a harmony between sight and sound, reinforcing your messages and making content more memorable.

For sure! Social media loves a good show. Animated font styles in stories or posts? They stop the scroll, grab attention, and make your message stand out in a sea of static content. It’s succinct, shareable, and smartphone-friendly—perfect for social platforms.

What are Common Typography Design Mistakes to Avoid?

Overdoing it is the cardinal sin. Remember, less is more—you’re aiming for impact, not distraction. Also, watch those font choices; you want something readable that gels with your message’s mood. Finally, timing is crucial; too fast and it’s gibberish, too slow and you’ll bore folks to tears.

Where Can I Find Inspiration for My Kinetic Typography Projects?

Inspiration’s everywhere—YouTube content creators, marketing campaigns, even movie openings. Analyze how the pros match motion with tone and context. Pinterest and Behance are hotspots for design inspiration, with a myriad of examples showing the sheer potential of motion typography techniques. Let others’ creativity spark your own.

Ending thoughts

So, there you have it—kinetic typography is a total game-changer. It’s not just letters on a backdrop; it’s an adventure for your eyes. It goes beyond font choices and size—this is about getting your message to dance to the rhythm of your story.

Let’s do a quick recap. We’ve covered the mechanics, dived into the software—heck, even glimpsed at the future of text in motion. Video text animation—to tell stories that stick, to create content that zings.

And the best part? It’s for everyone. From the next viral social media post to that high-stakes corporate presentation. Whatever your playfield, those dynamic, animated font styles are tools waiting to spark connections.

So, whenever you’re ready to amp up that user experience, remember: kinetic typography isn’t just about the dazzle; it’s a powerful voice in the digital chorus—a voice that’s uniquely yours. Grab it, twist it, and make it sing your message loud and clear.

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Bogdan Sandu

Bogdan Sandu, a seasoned designer with 15 years of diverse experience, has been designing websites since 2008.

Renowned for his expertise in logo design and visual branding, Bogdan has developed a multitude of logos for various clients.

His skills extend to creating posters, vector illustrations, business cards, and brochures. Additionally, Bogdan's UI kits were featured on marketplaces like Visual Hierarchy and UI8.