Welcome to the design and production of motion graphics! 

“Music thunders around our sitting room, frightening the cats…For me, the most exciting part is all that hoo-ha at the beginning. Oh, to be in charge of all those symbolic anvils, scorched maps, blood-drenched flags, boiling clouds and crimson fire-storms on the horizon!”

Peter Tory’s Daily Mail review of Thames Television’s Joseph Stalin documentary series, enthusing about motion graphics designer Morgan Sendall’s title sequence.

Motion graphics is the design, art direction and production of opening sequences, production design, programme graphics and channel identities (or 'idents'). Having evolved as an art form from the first opening sequence – Saul Bass's titles for The Man With The Golden Arm, in 1955 – the work of the motion graphics designer now represents about one fifth of all broadcast time on UK television. As such, it is an increasing field of design employment, especially as there are now dozens of channels (only fifteen years ago, there were only five in the UK). Until 1984, motion graphics were produced with card, ink, paper paint and acetate, then filmed under a rostrum or recorded through a studio video camera. Typographic graphics were created with rub-down transfer lettering (Letraset) or were printed with a hot press. In 1984, digital graphics replaced these hand-crafted methods in the form of the Quantel Paintbox. But these digital systems were very expensive to buy or hire – beyond the budget of smaller television companies and productions – and it was the advent of desktop Apple computers, and software like Adobe Photoshop, After Effects and 3D animation programmes, that brought complete production back into the designer's studio around 1996.

Promoting television channels and designing title sequences is a huge creative responsibility. If the viewers’ interest is not engaged immediately, they will switch over. Often, the titles are remembered long after the series has been forgotten. Famous examples are Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the Channel 4 ‘idents’, Have I Got News for You, Panorama, BBC News and University Challenge. Titles are also used for cinema feature films: remember all those James Bond or Pink Panther opening sequences?

The field of ‘motion graphics’ covers art direction, animation, video, illustration, photography, graphic design and digital imaging. The motion graphics designer needs to be skilled in all, or most, of these fields. The ability to work as part of a production team, to think creatively, to plan, research and organise, and to work calmly under pressure (with deadlines sometimes a matter of minutes) are essential personal attributes.