Manga Lettering vs Saul Bass Title Design

漫画の描き文字 / ソール・バスのタイトルデザイン

Manga Lettering comes from Lettering and Saul Bass Title Design from Broadcast Design. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Manga Lettering

Manga Lettering — 作者不詳 大正期の漫画 手描きの片仮名が画面に散る — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainManga Lettering — 北澤楽天《東京パック》表紙 1905 手描きの題字 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainManga Lettering — 岡本一平《カフエとモダン》1927 ホノルル美術館 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

In Japanese manga, sound effects and even the feel of silence are drawn as pictures, from a booming don to a hushed shiin. Hand-lettering turns the texture of a sound into line weight and shape, dissolving the border between image and word inside the panel.

Saul Bass Title Design

Saul Bass Title Design — ソール・バス『スパルタカス』タイトルロゴ 1960 — Wikimedia Commons / CC0Saul Bass Title Design — Saul Bass による『或る殺人』の図像 1959 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainSaul Bass Title Design — Saul Bass による『栄光への脱出』のポスター 1960 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Moves flat cut paper shapes and hand drawn capitals along simple straight paths in time with the music, stating the theme before the film begins.

Manga LetteringSaul Bass Title Design
Era1930s–1955 to 1990s
FamilyLetteringBroadcast Design
KindStyleStyle
CuesSound drawn as shape / Weight matched to texture / Placement crossing panels / Even silence written (shiin)Flat cut paper silhouettes / A palette held to a few colors / Uneven hand drawn capitals / Simple moves along straight lines
Best used forComics and paneled ads where sound must be written inside the picture · Still images given the flow of time without captions or balloonsHanding over a work's theme and temperature before the story starts · Redesigning the obligation of credits as a piece in its own right
TypeLine weight and edge shape carry the hardness of the soundOne face only, entrances and exits designed to the musical beat
CompositionLettering straddling panel borders and figures, following the reading pathHand the names to the moving shapes, fix one reading position
MaterialWritten with the same pen as the art, reversed white against solid blackArt built apart from the feature, few colors, one repeated motif
CautionSetting sound effects in a ready-made typeface keeps the hardness and speed out of the line, leaving a note floating above the drawing.Decoration unrelated to the feature is not the form, since only the structure that summarizes the theme survives, and when moving the names becomes the point there is no time to read them.

Put these two together

Lettering ／ Broadcast Design

IndexStyle