The Art of Title Design

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I recently stumbled across this incredibly cool video that takes you through the ages of title design, starting with D.W. Griffith’s 1916 film, "Intolerance" and ending with the Gaspar Noe’s 2009 film, "Enter The Void" (trust me – this film is as crazy as the title sequence that it has).  Throughout the progression of the piece you see how far along title design has come in terms of complexity – but you also see the creativity that has always been there, despite the limits of technology.  On its own it is an incredibly interesting piece that really puts some perspective and importance on this often overlooked art form.

But there’s more.  The video is really just an introduction piece to an incredible resource called "Art of the Title," which is a website that does periodic features on various title designs, giving you a behind the scenes look at who made them, and how they were envisioned and executed.  It’s incredibly fascinating.  You HAVE to watch the making of the title for Boardwalk Empire (and just about every single one of them…) 

Additionally, there is also a library of other masterpiece title sequences (that don’t have accompanying articles) and a directory of many of the different title designers out there.  I personally love the work by Kyle Cooper – who uses real elements photographed on glass and table tops to create some very memorable title sequences such as Se7en (great article on this one) and Dawn of the Dead (2004).

And I also have to give a shout out to M. Keegan Uhl (Winner of Chapter 3 Beyond The Still) as he is given a special thanks in the credits of the above video.