Saul Bass Title Design vs Silent Film Intertitle

ソール・バスのタイトルデザイン / サイレント映画の字幕カード

Saul Bass Title Design comes from Broadcast Design and Silent Film Intertitle from Film Technology. One is style and the other technique. They are reached for with different intent, which is the fastest way to tell them apart.

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.

Silent Film Intertitle

Silent Film Intertitle — チャップリン『キッド』の字幕カード 1921 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainSilent Film Intertitle — 『キッド』の字幕カード 1921 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainSilent Film Intertitle — 『The Nihilist』タイトルカード 1905 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Dialogue and description were cut into the film as separate cards of type. This is where cinema and typography first met.

Saul Bass Title DesignSilent Film Intertitle
Era1955 to 1990s1900s–1920s
FamilyBroadcast DesignFilm Technology
KindStyleTechnique
CuesFlat cut paper silhouettes / A palette held to a few colors / Uneven hand drawn capitals / Simple moves along straight linesText cards on black / Ornamental frames / Hand lettering / Alternating rhythm with the action
Best used forHanding over a work's theme and temperature before the story starts · Redesigning the obligation of credits as a piece in its own rightShort films watched without sound that need dialogue on separate cards · Chapter breaks and advertising borrowing the manner of the silent era
TypeOne face only, entrances and exits designed to the musical beatDifferent faces for speech and narration, trimmed to fit one card
CompositionHand the names to the moving shapes, fix one reading positionCenter the text and keep even space on all four sides
MaterialArt built apart from the feature, few colors, one repeated motifWhite out of black, with a faint film weave and gate flicker
CautionDecoration 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.Cards that explain too much stop the flow every time they appear, and the film turns into something to be read rather than watched.

Put these two together

Broadcast Design ／ Film Technology

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