When we first meet our Star-Lord hero Peter Quill, his ship has just landed in dark and stormy Morag. Shadowy, and loaded with ghostly figures and the stealth of our hero, it was crucial that the first flashes of type we showed would quietly establish the galactic location, augmenting but not disrupting the feel and tone of the building story.  But when Quill hits “play” on his ‘70s-era Sony Walkman and strains of Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love,” burst forth, the mood changes to energetic fun and our type goes right along with it. The Guardians of the Galaxy main title, in the glowing gold typeface we custom-created, blazes on to the screen.  And when Quill boots a few alien lizards, lip-syncs and dances, the credits dance too.

For the super fan’s out there: Those numbers are accurate.

We also created all of the locator cards for the film. The look was reminiscent of the interface design, but super legible because it was important for the storytelling.

In contrast to the original film, Volume II’s opener is high-energy from the start, landing us in a galactic inferno of superhero warfare. But echoing Quill’s Walkman moment, the instant Baby Groot puts plug to boom-blaster socket and the sounds of Electric Light Orchestra’s infectious “Mr. Blue Sky” beat out, he is transfixed. Completely oblivious to the melee around him, Baby Groot stays immersed in the joy of the music. Dancing over flailing tentacles and the bodies of Guardians battling around him, little Groot grooves on, up to and beyond the freeze-frame of him and the main title filling the screen.

What’s great about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is that they shot the whole opening sequence specifically to have the type in there. So once we got down to the typesetting work during post-production there were lovely compositions to work with.

But our work wasn’t done! Thrilled with our main title solutions, Marvel Studios asked us to also do the end crawl. Finding creative ways to entertain audiences while they’re waiting for the cool tags that come at the end of a film is no small task.

“You go from a main title which can be very artful, to an end crawl which has thousands of names. It’s like reading a contract,” says Erin. “My god! Unless your name, or your kid’s name is in it, there’s a pretty good chance you’re not reading it! So, to keep eyes on the screen and give people things to laugh at and be engaged with was a challenge.”

Our winning concept for the crawl came with a built-in ‘70s vibe: Album covers.  Literally raiding our family’s closets, we searched out and scanned scratched-up old album covers, referencing the colors and graphics in our artwork, while being careful not to include anything too referential or specific.

Adding interest through the scroll of names, Marvel Studios tucked multiple post-credit scenes right into the sequence—something it’s known for doing very well. Our design was shaped to motivate those transitions. Tying into the galaxy’s ship motif, we used lasers to carve out the headline type. Then, we packed in all sorts of sight gags. Characters from the films and the Marvel Universe dance in the margins, along with scribbled graffiti and flashing type that starts with “I am Groot!” and transforms into actors’ names. There’s a dancing Rocket, a Mantis…even Jeff Goldblum and Howard the Duck take a turn.

The whole point of the end crawl was for it to feel fun and gif-like, so we just started popping stuff in and making it work. Gunn, and the team at Marvel Studios loved where we were heading with this and were constantly asking, “What else can we put in here?” all the way through to delivery.

In love and in art, nothing’s more impactful than the first and last impression. Nobody knows that better than a filmmaker. That’s why the title sequence is so important. Setting the stage or sealing the take-away message, a great title-sequence finesses them both.

The title sequences we created for Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Volumes I & II, are prime examples. When Writer/Director James Gunn shaped the openers for both films, he did so with type and titles front of mind.

James literally wrote each opening sequence as a bed for main titles, which is a rare and wonderful thing. Walking into something that is already well thought out is completely different than being told, “I don’t know! Show us some cool stuff and we’ll pick something that is totally different.”

While not a typographer or a traditional designer, Gunn had a very specific point of view about the design for each title sequence, and the vision for how he wanted these to work.

For both films, each bit of type serves a different purpose. Whether crediting makers and stars, or announcing the name of the film, the typography’s look, feel, tone and timing had to change to fit seamlessly into the Galaxy’s universe.

It’s almost Christmas time in Knowhere and the stories about the Earth-specific  holiday are spreading among its inhabitants. As a kind gesture of appreciation for Peter Quill, after running into some musical instruments from Earth, an alien band (played by the Old 97’s), performs a song that shall become an intergalactic historical document about this “Christmas” celebration. We were so fortunate to contribute to this opening title sequence and to a piece of intergalactic history!

We looked at TV Specials from the 1970s and vintage Holiday typography for inspiration. Typographically, this needed to feel different from the previous films because it is, in fact, different from the films. We landed on Bookman for our main typeface mainly because we loved all the swash-y alt glyphs, but also because it felt like a great blend between a friendly sitcom and a holiday card. The juxtaposition of styles felt very much in line with the overall vibe of the show.

For the third and last film of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, the vibe of the main title sequence is definitely a departure from the upbeat ones in Vol.1 and 2. We needed to develop a solution that felt much softer and introspective in order for it to work well with the tone of the sequence.

Set to a beautiful acoustic version of Creep, by Radiohead, the animation of the letters blowing on and off the screen had to feel light as a feather – having an almost ethereal quality to it.