Film Title Sequence

Title sequences are the first words that pop up on one’s screen before a film/movie starts, obviously they are made to display the movie’s title and afterwards the producers, actors, directors and all other artists and staff that have worked on the film.  Yet, one would notice that such title sequence gives an introduction to the film, not by just displaying the name but the way it’s designed. In a simple explanation horror films have grudge look typography, kids films have a colourful simple uses of typo.

13 Ghosts (1960) Movie Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smki4Vupb9Q

Film titles were being used in theatres that showed up any kind of entertainment, whereas they were originally displayed around the 1650's when the first projector was invented. Yet movie titles have been though a change where they stopped being showed with projectors yet were being displayed in movies when the silent movies era began. This was shown with title cards which were printed and then photographed and edited into the film. This gave a start to new opportunities where lettering artists were being hired and typesetters were being employed and together with the scriptwriter and directors they were creating narratives so that the audience would understand exactly what they’re following through the scenes.

Die Abentever des prinzen Achmed (1926) (The adventure of prince Achmed)

This is one of the earliest animated title sequence ‘The adventure of prince Achmed’ where such art piece was quite impressive after the artist chose to decorate the typography with an art-deco style and was inspired with Arabic letterings just to keep up with the movie’s title as graphic design in titles was restricted until 1960’s as they were using minimum decoration and typeface, until artists like Soul Bass who demonstrated his work in such a stunning creativity used in his boldness just like how he managed to create a masterpiece in his work presented in the film ‘Antonomy of a murder’ (1959) 

Anatomy of a murderer (1959) 

Today’s technology has changed the world of title sequence inside out and as the process has improved to its finest way using our computer programmes. Animation of titles which back in the day was quite expensive to get the best, today became cheaper as today’s 3D images are closely enough to the real world as technology gave the designer a total control on what he desires to do, which makes such work be as creative as one can be. Here’s a little hint on what today’s film sequence looks like.. Enjoy !

Image:
. 2015. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/13GHOSTS01.JPG. [Accessed 28 October 2014].

. 2015. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://i.imgur.com/t6g1L.png. [Accessed 28 October 2014].

Info:
A History of Graphic Design: Chapter 39; A History of Film Title Sequence. 2015. A History of Graphic Design: Chapter 39; A History of Film Title Sequence. [ONLINE] Available at: http://guity-novin.blogspot.com/2011/06/chapter-39-brief-history-of-title.html. [Accessed 28 October 2014].

TyPoGrApHy

Typography is an important role in graphic design, typography kick started when Gutenberg started to develop typefaces yet it goes back to the first writings in calligraphy which were used in old manuscripts as it was the base of type design as it shows clearly that the evolvement of endless variety in design started since the early recordings of letterforms.

typography involves a lot of work in graphic design where one has to appropriately use a typeface on his work space i.e. in a poster, book covers, newspaper advertisement, websites, magazines and other visual materials.

As I have mentioned before in this post, typography goes back to the dark ages where in Ireland there were monks who created the illuminated manuscript which is a highly designed bible. This book consists of borders, illustrations and on top of all highly decorated initials but far most important these striking manuscripts were decorated in gold and silver.

Looking through the cultural lens of manuscripts, there are even Islamic calligraphy. The earliest calligraphy found is the decorated manuscripts in the Quran (muslims bible). Sadly enough, this is the only manifest that represents art in islam. These scribes were done by an employer in this sector called ‘Kuffi’ and used to build up these scribbles in black ink and gold. The difference between the illuminated manuscripts and Islamic manusripts is that the decoration of margins and other graphics were added after to ornate the book, yet the illuminated manuscripts art was forgotten (not produced anymore) after certain ammout of years and the Islamic calliagraphy gave a kick start to a new alphabet which instead of the angled lines they started to curve their letters.

Info:
. 2014. . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.csu.edu.au/faculty/arts/humss/art317/images/lindisf1.jpg. [Accessed 20 October 2014].

Illuminated manuscript. 2014. Illuminated manuscript. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Illuminated_manuscript.html. [Accessed 20 October 2014].

A History of Graphic Design: Chapter 4 - The Islamic Calligraphy. 2014. A History of Graphic Design: Chapter 4 - The Islamic Calligraphy. [ONLINE] Available at: http://guity-novin.blogspot.com/2010/02/history-of-graphic-design-calligraphy.html. [Accessed 20 October 2014].

pictures:
 2014. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bnvBnEvr8IQ/UPxnDuxvCGI/AAAAAAAAALs/wzHJUcXmWRQ/s1600/design,inspiration,magazine,graphic,design,layout,typography-ddcf8577837d5a118f7b49e8a156eee0_h.jpg. [Accessed 20 October 2014].

. 2014. . [ONLINE] Available at:http://cdnpix.com/show/imgs/41090bb9f9ac5d9cdaa3e5c082daf13c.jpg. [Accessed 20 October 2014].

. 2014. . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.csu.edu.au/faculty/arts/humss/art317/images/lindisf1.jpg. [Accessed 20 October 2014].

. 2014. . [ONLINE] Available at:https://thebrandywinebridge.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/flickr-2975796332-image.jpg. [Accessed 20 October 2014].

What is A Graphic Designer ?

~  David Carson 

A graphic designer is someone who is capable, more than that a professional and most of all, creative when it comes to graphic arts. His role is to create a design whenever it comes to images, typography, motions, logos, layouts, and websites and so on. These materials (artworks) that a graphic designer produces are generally made to be published or printed and sometimes placed in an electronic media (TV adverts, websites).

A graphic designer uses a couple of programmes to design with; the most common ones used are Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and InDesign.

A graphic designer generally combines an illustration, typography, photography instructions and information to give identification or to present/promote something with a message either for propaganda, advertisement or an announcement. Over all one’s most important role is that his artwork is memorable. A graphic designer creates artworks that are from the most ephemeral to the most permanent. These two words (ephemeral and permanent) are obviously two different things. Insignificant/Ephemeral includes stamp designs, bus or railway tickets, and bottle labels and so on. Permanent includes the design of logos which generally includes hotel signs, corporation’s logos and other logos such as car emblems. This could even mean translating images into words and meanings or in other words ‘alphabet of the human thoughts’. 

 A graphic designer sometimes can produce a ‘pictogram’, this is an image representing an object or a meaning created for visual language which is understood by all (just like male and female cut outs for rest rooms). And another way a graphic designer can communicate with others is by creating a rebus; this means that he creates something instead of sound just like the heart shape instead of writing ‘love’.

One asks, so what does a graphic designer do with his work after it’s printed/published? Well, a graphic designer has this so called portfolio. This portfolio can be produced in different ways. About 50 years ago a designer used to create a book or a binder booklet. Nowadays a designer can make his portfolio as an online blog, or an online website, CD, or even can send samples of his works via e-mail.

Mesopotamian tokens

After all this info I’d guess one would like to know when all of this started right? This takes us back to pre-historic era, where pre-historic humans used to draw/paint on walls to communicate with others so when one passes by one’s ‘territory’ one would know that there’s a sign of life (i.e. humans or animals). Early writing takes us back to Mesopotamian times when a high priest took care of their temples, further on we find hieroglyphs of Egyptians which were written on papyrus or engraved on walls. Further on the Latin alphabet was created (the letters we use today or most of them) where these were evolved after their adoption from the Greek literature but based on square, triangle and circular  shapes.   






Info : Graphic designer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2014. Graphic designer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_designer. [Accessed 13 October 2014].
Class info provided by Ms. S.Abela

Images: . 2014. . [ONLINE] Available at:http://i911.photobucket.com/albums/ac319/komunitasonlineshop/quotes%20graphic%20design/Graphicdesignwillsavetheworldrightafterrockandrolldoes.gif. [Accessed 13 October 2014].
. 2014. . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.residentadvisor.net/images/events/flyer/2013/6/mt-0622-485654-front.jpg. [Accessed 13 October 2014].


. 2014. . [ONLINE] Available at:https://m1.behance.net/rendition/modules/13928127/disp/ef5416304a5bde680cb85bf11602d98e.jpg. [Accessed 13 October 2014].
. 2014. . [ONLINE] Available at: http://blog.world-mysteries.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Lascaux_horse.jpg. [Accessed 13 October 2014]1320. 2014. 1320. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320hist&civ/chapters/16TOKENS.htm. [Accessed 13 October 2014].