Oliver Sacks on Music
Oliver Sacks was a neuroscientist who often explored the effects of music on the mind. This typographic animation accompanies an audio clip of Sacks speaking about music.
I also designed a book that features Sacks’ article The power of music. The layout of the book mimics how music is structured and mathematical, but also dynamic and expressive. The text follows a strict baseline grid but I let the length of each paragraph organically determine its placement on the page, and then adjusted the size of the page numbers accordingly. I wanted to create a musical feeling of layered voices that change dynamics over the course of a piece. Dramatic emphasis was placed on the pagination because music relies so heavily on counting and keeping a mathematical pace.
To accompany the text, I curated various visual representations of music such as graphic scores, data visualizations of sound, and fine art interpretations. The cover of the book reveals the baseline grid to mimic sheet music, and the varying image and type sizes show how expression can derive from structure.
To accompany the text, I curated various visual representations of music such as graphic scores, data visualizations of sound, and fine art interpretations. The cover of the book reveals the baseline grid to mimic sheet music, and the varying image and type sizes show how expression can derive from structure.
