A designer provides a nice overview of film title design from the silent era on through 2009:
Have you ever thought of what makes you remember a certain movie or TV show? Of course, it’s the story being told, you’ll say. But what about movies such as Goldfinger, Seven and Snatch? What’s the first thing that comes to mind? We are pretty sure their opening title sequences stick out for many of you.
Today we’ll take a closer look at that short space of time between the moment the lights go down and the first scene of a film, the part that so often sets our expectations of a movie, that sequence that speaks to our creative side: the art of the film title. We’ll look at the evolution of title design and some particularly interesting titles from various periods in the history of cinema and animation.
I’m particularly glad that such attention is paid to typography (note the list of typography resources and typeface downloads at the article’s end). And you simply can’t focus too much on the work of Saul Bass.