Smashing Magazine: The Art Of Film Title Design Throughout Cinema History

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/10/04/the-art-of-the-film-title-throughout-cinema-history/

1. Film titles made their appearance in the earliest silent films, along with letter cards (or inter-titles), which provided context. These cards were the responsibility of the lettering artist, who collaborated with the scriptwriter and director to create narrative continuity so that audiences could follow what they were seeing. Distinct from these inter-titles was the film’s main title, a vehicle of particular concern to film producers because of the legal, copyright and marketing information this footage had to bear.

So this was the beginning of typography, and how it was used to explain a narrative, similar to how text is used to give the audience expectation about the genre in the opening credits.

2. A great draftsman and visual storyteller, Saul Bass ran the gamut of techniques for his title sequences: montage, live action, cut-out paper animation, typography in motion, to name a few. Whatever technique he used, Bass summarized the film as a metaphor that often shone with creativity.

Similar to how Richard Morrison and Kyle Copper, create a vision or tell a story via the opening credits to give the audience some insight to what they are about to watch, through the use of theses techniques.

3. Every sphere of contemporary life — and especially the film business — has been affected by computers. For designers, creating film titles meant participating in the apprenticeship tradition — learning by doing, on the job; that continued unabated into the mid-1990s. At that time, dynamic openers by Kyle Cooper and others showed what the next generation of design-educated, film-literate, tech-savvy creatives could do.

Changed the way titles are created by embracing the new technology of computers and graphics, Kyle Cooper wasn't the only one to do this, Richard Morrison also embraced it over his 30-40 year career span.

4. Throughout the history of cinema, film titles has evolved with the film industry, as well as with social trends and fashion movements. But the measure of a title design’s quality is the same now as it was in the silent era. Whatever function they perform, titles remain an essential part of film


So as technology and times have changed, opening title sequences have changed to accommodate it to appeal to the audiences to give the audience expectation of the genre and to reveal small parts of the narrative. However it still plays an important role in any film and that is the same way through out history.


5. The potential of digital graphics and typography has attracted some of the most creative minds to motion design. Pixar and Disney have reserved crucial parts in the branding of their films for the title sequences. Using animated characters to introduce viewers to the story became a popular trend. Such talented graphic designers as Susan Bradley (Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., WALL-E, Ratatouille), Jaimi Caliri (Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events), Dave Nalle (Corpse Bride), Michael Riley (The Back-Up Plan, Kung Fu Panda) and Michael Curtis (Brother Bear) use all manner of tools to test different approaches to designing titles. One thing these individuals have in common is a drive to find a strong metaphor and tell an exciting story with their sequences.

So through typography and digital graphics, designers such as Susan Bradley produce metaphoric imagery to tell and exciting story through their opening sequences by using a manner of different tools and approaches. Which has evolved from the typography used in silent movies.