The art of film title design throughout cinema history

The title of a film is ery important to set the scene and to establish weather its a film production or a T.V production. In films today we look closely at the detail of the film including the short space of time between the moment the lights go off and the first scene of a film, the part that sets our expectations of a movie, that sequence that speaks to our creative side: the art of the film title. Therefore it is one of the most important things that directors/ editors and designers need to focus on. In film titles we see the link between the art of filmmaking and graphic design, and this produces a perfect titel for the genre/ storyline of the film.

Different types of films and there titles...

Silent Film- Words and lettering played an enormous role in films of the silent era, 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. Film titles and letter cards had to provide essential information to the viewer.

High budget silent film-



Here is the main title from D.W. Griffith’s “Intolerance” (1916).

White lettering on a black background is another characteristic of this era, because titles simply looked better this way when projected with live-action B&W film.

Examples of inter-titles...

Lower Budget silent film-

                                                               

As films grew more popular, the art of creating film titles became a very well pied job and the titles evolved.

During the 1920s and ’30s, European cinema was deeply influenced by modernism, and aspects of this visual sensibility were brought to the US by filmmakers who were fleeing the Nazis. Meanwhile, the studio systems operating in Europe and Hollywood also delighted in creating titles that featured vernacular graphic novelties. As much as possible, they liked to convey the tone of a movie through the “dressage” of its main title. Thus, blackletter fonts in the opening credits were used to evoke horror, ribbons and flowery lettering suggested love, and typography that would have been used on “Wanted” posters connoted a western flick.