Strike Back

Momoco created the opening titles for Sky1’s military action series Strike Back. His concept, says designer Nic Benns, was “human, gritty, and informative.” But when HBO came on board as co-producer, the execs demanded a rebrand. Ergo, new titles. What changed? “They wanted sex,” Nic says. The (happy) end of this story is of course that this ‘sexified’ version of the titles was nominated for an…

FITC Amsterdam 2013

With an Enter-the-Void-esque design and concept artwork created by GMUNK, Dutch design studio Onesize took it a step further and produced and directed the hypnotic main titles for last month’s FITC edition taking place on our home turf in Amsterdam. We were privy to watching them debut on the big screen, and following the event we chatted up Rogier Hendriks of Onesize to find out more about thi…

Playgrounds 2009

A series of stills depicting two hardened thugs in a bare-knuckle scrap, are rendered in three dimensions against a bleak, urban backdrop. For Holland’s Playgrounds Festival, Onesize used this metaphor of the creative process which too, often presents an internal battle of wills. As high impact meets slow motion for heightened drama, this sequence mesmerizes from start to finish.

Onesize interview

Amsterdam-based motion design studio Onesize has built a solid reputation for themselves in recent years. This is partly due to their eye-catching and technologically advanced opening titles for two big design events in 2009, OFFF and Playgrounds. Back in 2010 we shot a video profile with Onesize founders Kasper Verweij and Rogier Hendriks in their, then, brand-new and freshly painted Amsterdam…

N.A.S.A. The Spirit of Apollo

After having struggled with the opening titles for his documentary about the audiovisual collaboration N.A.S.A. The Spirit of Apollo, animator and director Syd Garon had somewhat of an epiphany when he saw Simon C Page’s posters for The International Year Of Astronomy. Like a tailored suit, Page’s stylishly minimal geometric shapes representing celestial bodies in orbit proved to be the perfect…

Visual Arabia 2013

Influenced by the tradition and form of Arabic calligraphy, Juan Behren’s opening titles for  Visual Arabia 2013 explore the beauty and mystique of this centuries old form of communication and art. Watch the Titles editor Rani Nugraha has a chat with the Computer Programmer turned Motion Designer about learning Arabic script, reigning in ideas, and the complexities of being ambitious.

Darius Ghanai interview

Germany’s most prolific title designer, Darius Ghanai has designed over 50 title sequences and posters for critically acclaimed European films such as Good Bye Lenin!, Perfume and Palermo Shooting. On a crispy sunny morning in May, we visited the friendly designer in his former studio located in Berlin’s Mitte district, close to where Good Bye Lenin! was shot. We talked for hours about title de…

Manhunt

Introducing Manija Emran, typographer. Ever since we first saw the process for the end credit sequence for Rango, Manija’s beautiful hand-drawn Western-style typography struck a massive chord here at Watch the Titles, and we’ve been following her work since. Formerly at Prologue, where she created memorable typography for films such as Robin Hood, Breaking Dawn and Fright Night, Manija is now a…

Vikings

We were immediately struck by the atmospheric Main Title for Vikings, with its darkly lucid stream of impressionistic images that seem to have been pulled straight out of the cauldron of our collective unconscious. We got in touch with Creative Director Rama Allen, who you might remember from the stylistically related and much-lauded True Blood Titles. Rama talks about our “vestigial need” for …

OFFF Barcelona 2013 – Mr. Emilton's Cabinet of Curiosities

The fuss about the annual Main Titles for the OFFF event in Barcelona might seem like a bit of a hype. But at least it’s a substantiated hype. And it’s a daunting challenge for any designer to live up to it. Especially true when you’re a total newcomer to the scene, like From Form. But these guys delivered. This new studio caught everyone by surprise with a meticulously designed short live acti…