Film Title Design
Film design is another area where design plays are major part. In motion picture this has always been an essential area and the design of the film title was often called the title art.
The main title design comprises of the film company's name and logo (if appropriate) along with the characters and the names of the actors that played them, displayed on the same background.
A lot of major companies and film studios have their own title art which they use as a background for the screen credits. This is used pretty much exclusively for every film that they produce.
In the 1930's film studios started to get a lot more progressive in the way that they displayed their screen credits. Major studios took on the challenge to make improvements in the way that these were displayed and in the way that their films were introduced. The move was towards a more comprehensive list of credits on a background of artwork that was of a higher quality.
The outcome of this was that in the mid 1930's to early 1940's the major film studios used artwork designed by renowned and leading designers in their fields. Some of the names that came into this category were George Petty, Al Hirschfield, Ted Ireland, Symeon Shimin, William Galraith, Hap Hadley and Jacques Kapralik.
A mark of a quality design artist working in this profession was his ability to set the mood of the film and capture the audience before the film actually began. The box office saw a 10% rise in ticket sales after these improvements were made, meaning the film studios made a worthwhile improvement in committing to improving the quality of the title art.