This week was less about deciding and more about structuring everything so the thesis could actually become writable. After finalising the corpus the previous week, the work shifted toward turning research notes, case studies, and references into a clear chapter plan.
The main development was the full thesis structure. Chapter 1 was framed around two title-sequence case studies, The Crown and Lessons in Chemistry, while Chapter 2 was dedicated to two short-form advertising case studies, Nike .SWOOSH and Hermès It’s Time for a Joyful Show. Chapter 3 then became the comparative section, bringing all four case studies together under the same analytical lens.
A big part of the week was also about making the outline more precise. The goal was not just to say what would be analysed, but to explain how and why the comparison matters: how the same formal toolkit — typography, imagery, texture, motion, and sound — can produce different semiotic outcomes depending on compositional logic.
The research approach also became more concrete. Instead of relying only on general theory, each case study was treated as its own small research cluster, with attention to background, production context, interviews, credits, making-of material, and other primary sources.
By the end of the week, the outline in Notion had become much cleaner, more consistent, and much closer to something that could be drafted directly. It no longer felt like scattered planning notes; it felt like the beginning of the thesis itself.
Final thesis outlines
Chapter 1 — Title Sequences
This chapter will analyse how motion graphics uses the same formal toolkit — typography, imagery, texture, motion, and sound — under different compositional logics in two title-sequence case studies: The Crown and Lessons in Chemistry. The aim is to show not only what each sequence does, but how the same tools generate different semiotic outcomes depending on format and function.
Betancourt’s concept of the text-image composite provides the main analytical framework for understanding how graphic elements combine to produce meaning in motion. This is supported by Stone and Wahlin’s motion design vocabulary, along with Gray’s concept of paratext, which helps frame title sequences as threshold texts that shape audience expectations before the narrative begins.
The chapter focuses on how each sequence constructs tone, value, and identity through visual and sonic organisation.The Crown is especially useful for analysing grain, serif typography, pacing, and prestige coding, while Lessons in Chemistry offers a contrasting case through a different graphic rhythm and compositional emphasis.
The purpose of this chapter is to establish how motion graphics functions paratextually in high-end television. It lays the analytical foundation for the advertising chapter by showing how a shared toolkit can operate according to a framing logic rather than a persuasive one.
Chapter 2 — Advertising
This chapter will analyse short-form audiovisual advertising through two specific case studies: Nike .SWOOSH and Hermès It’s Time for a Joyful Show.The aim is to examine how motion graphics operates in advertising when the same formal toolkit — typography, imagery, texture, motion, and sound — is organised around persuasion and recognition rather than paratextual identity.
These two case studies were selected because they offer a strong internal contrast within the advertising format. Nike .SWOOSH foregrounds kinetic typography, digital texture, rhythm, and brand-forward energy, while Hermès relies far more on line, tactility, motion continuity, and a restrained use of text.
The chapter will therefore examine not only how each advertisement communicates brand identity, but also how different compositional strategies shape different forms of address.In methodological terms, the chapter remains grounded in close semiotic analysis, but it also places greater emphasis on project-specific material such as interviews, credits, behind-the-scenes sources, and production context for the two advertisements themselves.
This section establishes the advertising side of the thesis and prepares the material for the comparative discussion. It shows how motion graphics in commercial work uses the same formal devices identified in title sequences, but reorganises them toward immediacy, recognition, and persuasion.
Chapter 3 — Comparative Analysis and Discussion
This chapter compares the two title-sequence case studies and the two advertising case studies using the same analytical lens.Its purpose is to show how the same formal toolkit — typography, imagery, texture, motion, pacing, and sound — produces different semiotic outcomes depending on compositional logic rather than medium alone.
The chapter asks where paratext logic and persuasion-recognition logic diverge most clearly, and where they begin to overlap. It also considers whether some distinctions commonly treated as format-specific may in fact be better understood as compositional choices.
Betancourt remains the overarching framework for analysing text-image relations across all four examples, while Stone and Wahlin provides the shared motion-design vocabulary used to compare them. The comparative discussion draws on the findings from each chapter rather than introducing a new method, allowing the thesis to test whether meaning changes because of the format itself or because of the communicative demands placed on the same toolkit.
This chapter provides the main comparative discussion of the project.It synthesises the findings from the case studies and shows what the comparison reveals about motion graphics as a medium, particularly the relationship between formal choices and format-specific meaning.