Carla and I just started watching the Netflix science fiction show, Stranger Things, which stars Winona Ryder and is set in 1983. We like it! We also like the title sequence at the beginning, which has a 1980s vibe. Art of the Title is a website about the art of TV show and movie titles, and they recently interviewed Michelle Dougherty, the Creative Director of Imaginary Forces, which produced the title sequence for Stranger Things.
The first meeting was set up by Shawn Levy, one of the executive producers and a director on the show. He told us we’d be working with these amazing creators, the Duffer Brothers, and got us on the phone. After talking with them I could see what he was talking about. They had this incredible vision!
The initial call was them talking to us about some of the film titles that they liked. They referenced Richard Greenberg and all the greats that he’d created — The Goonies, Altered States, Alien, The Untouchables, The Dead Zone, just to name a few. That was great to hear because we understood where they were coming from. That was really refreshing — and pretty surprising — that these creators knew so much about title design.
After that call they sent over some book covers that they liked, from books that they’d either read or seen as children. Most of them were by Stephen King, so we knew they were looking for something that felt ’80s and tapped into this nostalgia by using that typography.
Previously: Supercut of 1980s film references in Stranger Things