Design & cinema: A timeline of graphic design in film

Abstract

manifestation of graphic design adapted onto a filmic space. It was precisely during the early cinema, with the silent film, that these graphic elements were first implemented in a film’s visual narrative with clear functions. Since then, film language has changed and evolved in many ways, as well as the graphic language itself, introducing and influencing the role of a designer in a movie production. In order to understand the use of graphic design elements in movies, one first needs to take a step back and see the bigger picture – why is there a need for graphic configurations in movies? Who is responsible for defining and creating them? How are they important for the interpretation of visual narratives? Answering these and other questions implies in breaking down not only a film’s language but also the filmic production process, in order to better define the roles of each professional – considering that cinema is, in its essence, a collaborative form of art. Being collaborative, no work can be done by itself or can stand alone. This also includes the graphic configurations, that cannot be seen as an isolated product but part of an intricate narrative, with different layers of complexity. The next sections aim to present an overview of what events led to the development of cinema and how its language was defined in more than one century of existence – from silent to contemporary films – through a timeline of graphic design in film. The objective is to draw parallels between the graphic design elements and major milestones in film history, so as to understand what are the graphic configurations that have always existed in cinema’s language, as well as identify the ongoing changes which shaped their structure and behaviour in filmic narratives and the role of the designer in creating them.