In my exploration for this post, I found a lot of interesting
typographic work in movie title sequences. This post will explore the
progression of title sequences throughout the 20th century and focus
on the ways typography is used in title sequences.
Some of the earliest movie title sequences were nothing more
than a title card that was shown on screen at the beginning of the film, like
the one pictured below.
These title cards usually featured large decorative type for
the movie title and was supported by simple or less busy sans-serif type. As
the film industry developed and animation became more popular, designers began
to use this as a form of introduction to movies.
Some of the most influential title sequence design comes
from Saul Bass. Saul Bass often relies on the importance of the typography in
relationship to his bold and unique imagery. This title sequence for the movie It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World features
type that works in a playful and fun way to highlight the humorous and exciting
tone of the movie.
Saul Bass made movie titles throughout his entire career,
and each one is influenced by the unique qualities of each movie. This hour
long video shows all of Saul Bass’s movie title sequences and is great
inspiration for playful type and how type can complement image.
Saul Bass worked on title sequences as iconic as Psycho, which featured type interacting
on a black background with horizontal grey bars that gave an eerie and
psychological feel to the movie. His work showed the impact a title sequence
can have on setting the tone of the movie.
Another great title sequence using typography is the opening
of Alien. This sequence, designed by
Richard Greenberg, uses type to create a suspenseful and mysterious
introduction. As the title sequence is playing out, the very spaced out shapes
at the top of the sequence begin to piece together to spell the word “Alien”.
In doing this, the designer creates a sense of creepiness and suspense. The
letterforms are so spaced out that the viewer has to wait in suspense to get
the reveal of the movie title. View this movie sequence here:
The above website is also a great resource that has a
collection of movie titles and features the work of many designers,
typographers, and animators.
Jumping ahead several years, another very famous title
sequence created by Oliver Kuntzel and Florence Deygas is the title sequence of
Catch Me if You Can. This titie
sequence features a sans-serif typeface that is incorporated by extending the
ascenders, descenders, and stems of the letterforms to animate the sequence.
This creates an interesting and eye-catching relationship between the text and
the imagery, without making the typography illegible or hard to read.
As movies and design aesthetics evolved over the 20th
century and into the 21st century, the typography in many movie
title sequences typically became very simple as to put more focus on the
animations or film visuals, evident in another design by Saul Bass for the
movie Casino, which was his last
title sequence before his death in 1996.
As film evolved, more opportunities for playful typography
also became more common. This can be shown in the typography for the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite, in which the
typography is incorporated as food, notebook sketches, and other high
school-themed imagery. The typography in this film emphasized the odd, tacky,
and slightly awkward nature of the film.
Another contemporary example of unique typography in film
sequence is Juno, which features
hand-done type in a style that resembles notebook doodles and marker drawings. This
type works very well with the illustration qualities of the title sequence and
complements themes and visuals that are in the movie. This typography is also
applied to other aspects of the film’s visual identity and can be seen on
promotional items and branding of the movie.
I will end with a recent example of title sequence that
branches out from the genre of film. Video games have become increasingly more
detailed and immense in the last several years, and some have even adapted the cinematic
qualities of film and incorporated it into the gameplay. For example, The Last of Us is an action role-playing
game that was released in 2013 that has been critically acclaimed for its
story, its gameplay, as well as it’s design. This game is essentially an
interactive movie, and featured at the beginning of the game is a movie-like
title sequence. Designed by Henry Hobson, this title sequence invokes the dark,
post-apocalyptic nature of the game and is complemented by his use of very
simple typography that is contrasted by a very busy background.
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