Editorial · Graphic Design · Motion

Tame Impala

A typography project built from weekly studies into a book layout and After Effects animation around Tame Impala’s “New Person, Same Old Mistakes.”

2023 · Designer · Typographer · Motion Designer · UCLA

It started as a semester of weekly typography assignments, each with its own constraints, and grew into a full editorial system and a piece of motion work.

The Idea

The project centers on a song about trying to change while old habits keep pulling you back. I worked on that tension with repetition, scale, weight, distortion, spacing, and image treatment. I chose Gill Sans Nova myself: its modern structure suggested becoming a new person, while some of its older-form character kept a link to the past.

Editorial System

The weekly studies fed a real book layout: large condensed type, a black-and-white base with magenta and purple accents, and treated photography cut into the text. I designed the layouts, the cover, and the image treatment. The personal essay is my own writing; the article shown here is sourced online, and the photographs are sourced from the internet with light edits from me.

Book spread with the words “TAME IMPALA” set in huge, cropped black condensed type across the top, a headline overlapping it, three columns of article text, and a portrait fading into the right-hand page.

Weekly Studies

Each square was a weekly assignment with its own requirements and limits, all set from the same few lines: the song title, the band, the album, and the year. These are the studies that pushed the idea furthest.

Repetition + Fade

Overlapping lines build texture, then rings of repeated text fade toward the center like a record, wearing away the meaning of “same old mistakes.”

Typography study: “New Person, Same Old Mistakes, Tame Impala, Currents 2015” set in lines of black type, each line overlapped by a lighter offset copy of itself.

Typography study: the title repeated in a fan of concentric curved lines, heavy and bold on the outside and fading to light gray toward the center.

Weight + Hierarchy

Mixed typefaces press toward a central line and pull in both directions, then a blunt stacked hierarchy where each line gets its own weight.

Typography study: the word “CURRENTS” in huge black letters at the center, surrounded by smaller lines of “New Person, Same Old Mistakes” in several typefaces and rotations.

Typography study: “NEW PERSON, SAME OLD MISTAKES” stacked in heavy black italic capitals, with “tame impala,” “2015,” and “currents” in light, widely spaced type.

Color + Rhythm

A CMYK dot grid with glyph accents landing on every third beat, and a wave of repeated text where weight reads as depth.

Typography study: a grid of cyan, magenta, and yellow dots with a large overlapping X of the same three colors and small black glyph accents.

Typography study: rows of blue “new person, same old mistakes” text on a peach background, warped into a wave that grows heavier toward the bottom, with “TAME IMPALA” at the top left.

Words + Images

Later studies brought images in. The type stops sitting on a white field and starts working with color, texture, and treated photography. The photographs are sourced from the internet; the treatment and composition are mine.

Composition of a guitarist singing in front of a large moon, on a swirling lavender and blue op-art background, with “new person, same old mistakes” curving over the top.

Composition of a long-haired portrait on an orange background with a green square over one eye, the title arced around the head, and “TAME IMPALA” in green across the chest.

Composition of red-orange and magenta horizontal stripes bending around a glowing green and yellow circle, with “TAME” repeated three times and “IMPALA” stacked vertically in black.

Motion

The project extended into a short animation made in After Effects, setting lines from the song in moving type. Press play to watch with sound.

Adobe InDesign · Adobe Illustrator · Adobe After Effects