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s u m m e r 2 0 1 9 c g w 5 5 symbolic foretaste of what is to come, and to create a receptive atmosphere that will enable the film to begin on a higher level of audience support." He did that. And more. The rise of long-form television shows has made way for long-form titles that can prepare the groundwork for an entire season, alluding to events that happen across episodes so that the titles even touch on the story. Video services such as YouTube and Vimeo have also opened up a medium for directors to show their short works. Today, title sequences pull together all aspects of visual design: typography, sound, music, animation, illustration, live action, and VFX. Nothing is out of place or off-limits – just tell the story. The wonderful title sequence for Mad Men by Imaginary Forces is just one example of the resurgence of innovative title work that's happening for television and movies. Ironically, even though the series is about the end of the space age and the dawn of Aquarius, Steve Fuller and Mark Gardner, the creative directors of the title sequence, said in an interview with Art of the Title that they didn't want to reference Bass' work too di- rectly because the show's director, Matthew Weiner, didn't want the piece to look too much like the '60s. Yet, it certainly conjures up the feel of the era. The falling man peace- fully driing past the grid of skyscrapers is a direct reference to Bass' North by Northwest grid overlaying the United Nations building. Fuller says he saw what they were doing as an updating of Bass' work. Art and design have moved on from an infatu- ation with modernism and past the aridity of postmod- ernism into something else again. According to Maxon's Edwards, "the brakes are off in fashion and all the arts." He notes that people are not tied to genres or styles. What he finds so exciting about the current period of motion design is that people are put- ting together image, sound, typography, and photogra- phy in novel ways. "As long as you have a vision – it may be from any era – it's totally acceptable to use. Everything is on the table," he says. THE EVOLUTION OF MOTION GRAPHICS Edwards sees the increased use of motion graphics for effects and for storytelling as resulting from the accessibility of tools. "Mo- tion graphics," says Edwards, "used to be a quite spendy approach." As the techniques become easier, there's more room to exper- iment, and motion graphics become a tool to enhance the narrative. That's why we're seeing more motion graphics visualizations that give life to "heroes sitting around a table discussing how to get unobtanium from blue cat people," says Edwards, referencing Ava- tar. "Places like Territory Studio, Perception Studio, and Sarofsky use a mix of applica- tions to get there, and all these companies are frankly amazing in how freshly they are approaching their work." Territory Studio, with offices in London, New York, and San Francisco, has made something of a specialty out of creating fantasy interfaces for robots and rocket ships, among other things. Their work has appeared in the Prometheus, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Avengers series, as well as Pacific Rim: Uprising, Men in Black: Interna- tional, Ready Player One, Blade Runner 2049, Spider-Man: Far from Home, Ghost in the Shell, The Martian, Mile 22, Hunter Killer, and American Assassin, to name probably a very few. Marti Romances, founding partner and creative director, works with Territory's inter- face expert David Sheldon Hicks, designing screens for, as he says, "characters with operating systems," and also for spaceships and air computers. He got his start creating menus for DVDs. At the Motion Plus Design festival in Los Angeles held earlier this year, Romances recalled that in the early days of DVD, he was cranking out menus using Autodesk's Flame and other tools at a rate of about one a day. He said he learned more at that one job than he did at school. Now, he uses Cinema 4D and Aer Effects as major tools for his work, and in fact he was on stage to accept the Sci-Tech Award with colleagues and collaborators. IMAGINARY FORCES CREATED THE INNOVATIVE TITLE WORK FOR TV'S MAD MEN SERIES. TERRITORY STUDIO CREATED THIS OVERLAY FOR GHOST IN THE SHELL. TERRITORY STUDIO'S WORK APPEARS IN MANY FILMS, INCLUDING AVENGERS: ENDGAME.