Brief History of Title Design

A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

A History Of The Title Sequence from From Form on Vimeo.

Film title design evolved as a form of experimental filmmaking within the realm of commercial motion pictures. The origin of film titles can be traced back to the silent film era, where credit sequences were presented on title cards containing text. They were inserted throughout the film to maintain the flow of the story. (Ironically, they often interfered with the pacing of the narrative.) Hand-drawn white lettering superimposed over a black background provided information such as the title, the names of the individuals involved (director, technicians, cast, etc.), the dialogue, and action for the scenes. Sometimes the letters were embellished with decorative outlines, and usually the genre of the film dictated the style. For example, large, distressed block letters marked horror, while a fine, elegant script characterized romance. After the implementation of sound, titles began to evolve into complete narratives and became elevated to an art form.

During the 1950s, American graphic design pioneer Saul Bass became the movie industry’s leading film title innovator. His evocative opening credit sequences for directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, and Otto Preminger garnered public attention and were considered to be miniature films in themselves. Bass viewed the credits as a logical extension of the film and as an opportunity to enhance the story.

“Bass fashioned title sequences into an art, creating in some cases, like Vertigo, a mini-film within a film. His motion graphics compositions function as a prologue to the movie—setting the tone, providing the mood and foreshadowing the action.”

—Martin Scorsese

During the 1960s, Friz Freleng, known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros, developed the opening cartoon animation for The Pink Panther (1963). This immediately became an icon of pop culture, appearing in am number of sequels and eventually its own television series. Freleng’s cool, contemporary design style, the use of spinning letters and unscrambling words, along with the distinctive theme music from Henry Mancini was a complete departure from the cheaply made theatrical cartoons of the time.

In contrast, American designer Maurice Binder’s openings for the classic James Bond movies gained popularity in their abstract, erotic imagery. Beginning with Dr. No and ending with License to Kill, Binder’s stylish credit sequences for fourteen 007 films became a trademark of the series and have been described as a visual “striptease” of nude figures against swirling, enveloping backgrounds of color. In a time where pop music and fashion permeated mainstream entertainment, these sensual openings were a perfect match for Bond’s character. The classic gun barrel opening that precedes the traditional pre-credit opening sequences in every 007 film was initially created by Binder for the opening to Dr. No (1962). Gunshots, which are fired across the screen, transform into the barrel of a gun that follows the motion of the silhouetted figure of Bond. The figure turns toward the camera and fires, and a red wash flows down from the top of the screen as the gun barrel becomes reduced to a white dot. Binder achieved this effect by actually photographing through the barrel of a .38 revolver. This sequence became a trademark of the 007 series and was used extensively throughout its promotion. (Each actor playing Bond had his own interpretation of the famous gun barrel walk-on, the first being stuntman Bob Simmons, then Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and finally Pierce Brosnan.)

“The title sequence of a film is like the frame around a painting; it should enhance and comment on what is ‘inside,’ alerting and sensitizing the viewer to the emotional tones, the story ideas, and the visual style which will be found in the work itself.”

—Walter Murch

In 1977, Richard Alan Greenberg and his brother Robert founded R/Greenberg Associates. Richard, a traditionally-schooled designer, established a name for his company by “flying” the opening titles for the feature film Superman (1978). This sequence demonstrated an early example of computer-assisted effects that enabled the animation of three-dimensional typography. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Richard Greenberg designed title credits for features including Family Business (1989), Flash Gordon (1980), Altered States (1980), Another You (1991), Death Becomes Her (1992), Executive Decision (1996), and Foxfire (1996). Many of these titles are treated as visual metaphors that set the tone of the movie.

Influenced by Pablo Ferro and Saul Bass, Kyle Cooper was one of the first graphic designers to reshape the conservative motion picture industry during the 1990s by applying trends in print design and incorporating the computer to combine conventional and digital processes. After studying under legendary designer Paul Rand at the Yale University School of Art, he worked at R/Greenberg Associates in New York and contributed to the title sequence for True Lies (1994). In 1995, his opening credit sequence for David Fincher’s psychological thriller Se7en, which expressed the concept of a deranged, compulsive killer, immediately seized public attention. Today, it is regarded as a landmark in motion graphic design history.

After designing the opening for John Frankenheimer’s interpretation of H.G. Wells’s novel The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), Kyle Cooper, Chip Houghton, and Peter Frankfurt founded Imaginary Forces, a motion graphics studio in Los Angeles.

Phantom of the Opera