The only thing that didn’t have a 90′s revival was film titles!

I am all for the advances of CGI in terms of expanding how far we are able to push our ideas. However, I really miss the good old days of just a superbly selected and set type face, combined with some slick graphical elements being integrated with a subtle backstory. I am talking about The Art of Title Sequences.

 

There is nothing wrong with the incredible and vast 3D titles of films such as Transformers or SpiderMan, in fact I would cut my right arm off to work on such things, but it has been a long time since I saw something that really told a story. Every day I see amazing examples of animated typography like the recent End Titles for X-Men, First Class created by Prologue, a company which is run in part by a hero of mine. Those of you that have heard one of my plentiful, previous, drunken rants on this subject will know that I adore the work of Kyle Cooper. My main issue with the X-Men titles however boils down to one key factor. The words”END” titles.

 

What made the work of Cooper special was his ability to tell an entire backstory in just a few minutes. A process which hadn’t really been seen since the work of Soul Bass. The 90′s Cooper title sequences were almost a short film in their own right, and would entrap the viewer’s attention instantly in order to prepare them both visually and mentally for the film to follow. These days, people are either still talking from the trailers (grrrrr I hate those people), or they are happy just to accept a swish fly through of a heavily textured extruded 3D logo with a fancy Matte Painting as the backdrop. Don’t get me wrong, these are visually stunning but as a graphic designer I am always left sad that there was no perfect use of a vintage script, or beautifully Kerned Futura, transitioning before by eyes, integrated with some beutufully edited macro shots, powered along by some envigorating music. Thats what gets me ready for a film. And to be honest, just as was the case with the remake of Dawn of the Dead, the rest of the film can be a piece of junk and I will still go home happy from that first 3 minutes alone.

 

My new years resolution is to finally make a short film of my own, just so that I can bring back a style that should never have been forgotten. If the Hipsters (aka D*ckHeads) of the trendy east end streets of Dalston can bring back the awful fashion of the 90′s era, then I should be more than welcome to try to even get close to the genius that is Kyle Cooper’s 1995 title sequence for David Fincher’s Se7en.