Typeface Development: Title & Credits

Here is my blog containing our typeface development for our movie opening project. This blog

and work is done by Cassie.

A typeface is the design of letters, numbers, and symbols that create a specific visual style

for text. It helps shape the way words look, making them feel formal, casual, modern, or

even eerie. For our project, choosing the right typeface is important because it helps set the

tone of the story. By carefully selecting a typeface, we can make sure our project matches

the emotions we want to create. But first, we must know what our title is before we can create

the typeface.

Picking the right title for our project wasn’t easy. We wanted something that matched the story

and stuck in people’s minds. After a lot of thinking, we narrowed it down to four choices:

• Missed Call

• Text Me When You Get Home

• Invite Only

• Afterparty

Each one had a good reason to be picked. Text Me When You Get Home felt familiar, something

people actually say. Invite Only made the story feel exclusive and secret. Afterparty hinted at

something happening after an event, maybe something unexpected or dark.

But in the end, Missed Call was what we went with. The title is simple but powerful. In our story,

that one missed call is the turning point. In our story, a mother calls her kidnapped daughter, but

the daughter doesn’t answer. That missed call is more than just a phone notification, but rather a

symbol that shows the loss of communication. It creates suspense and makes people wonder: How

will the mother contact her daughter again? 

Our group members decided this title by holding a poll in our group chat, where we discussed

each title and came to the final conclusion of Missed Call.

Before choosing a font for our title, I looked at other thriller movies to see what kinds of

typefaces they use. Above are some movie posters of a few thriller films that have typefaces I

like and I’d like to experiment with. Thriller movies have their own unique typefaces, and I

have classified these into these categories:

• Distorted or Glitched – Text looks glitchy or broken, which can make the audience feel

like something is wrong or out of place. It also implies corrupted signals or lost

communication. 

• Sharp and Jagged Edges – Suggests violence and creates a sense of unease.

This has a horror-like texture and messy look that suggests something dangerous

is happening, and adds mystery. 

• Bold, Heavy Lettering – The thick and strong letters make the title stand out and

feel intense. This makes the title more impactful when shown, and adds a sense

of tension, grabbing attention right away. 

• Minimalist, Sans-serif Fonts – Creates a sleek and clinical aesthetic, often used in

psychological thrillers. 

• Handwritten or Scratchy Styles – Feels unsettling and personal, like something

written in fear, or written by a criminal. Usually used in horror-thrillers.

• Red Accents or Fading Effects – Implies blood, danger, or an ominous presence.

My two favorite fonts are the glitched font and bold heavy lettering. 

I also thought about what names and credits to include. The text needs to be clear but still

match the thriller style. It’s important that the audience can read the names of the people

involved in the film while still feeling the suspense and mystery.

Here are the fonts we’ve considered:

And since we plan to show the title in a dark background, I made this:

After careful consideration and group polls, we narrowed it down to the 2nd and 8th font, which

falls under the glitched text and bold heavy lettering fonts.

This font has a glitch effect, which gives it a digital feel and shows that something is interfering.

This might work well for our thriller as we do have a technology aspect in our opening (the missed

call) which may be a recurring theme/symbol in the rest of the movie. 

Usually a distorted and glitchy text connotes a distortion of the truth, loss of control or communication,

or something being “hacked” or manipulated. While our thriller doesn’t fit two themes, it fits the

“loss of control or communication” connotation well as it ties with our kidnapping scene which shows

that the mother cannot contact her daughter. This font may imply that the rest of our movie is her mom

trying to find and contact her daughter, rather than her daughter escaping her kidnapper. 

However, personally I think our movie lacks more technological elements to use this font. While the font

itself is great, it looks more “sci-fi” in my opinion rather than thriller. 

This font is bold, with a subtle texture of “duct tape” almost. This makes the danger feel more direct and

terrifying. The duct tape texture alludes to the fact that duct tape is a common tool for tying victims up,

which could be the daughter in the thriller, even if duct tape wasn’t explicitly shown. The edges are also

not clean and sharp, having some jagged edges, though not obvious. This suggests that some violence is

involved, or that something happened that caused damage. This suits our thriller as our protagonist was

kidnapped, and pulled away with force while she's unconscious just before we plan to show the title. 

This font suggests a more physical thriller movie, perhaps implying that the rest of our film is about the

daughter facing and escaping her kidnapping, rather than the mom trying to find her. This type of font

works well with thrillers with dark secrets and mysteries, and the main mystery that arises in our

opening is: why did they kidnap her? What's the motive? how will the mother find her or how will she

escape?

However, I’ve found one problem with this font. With a white background and black test, the duct tape

effect seems clear and cool, however we plan to show the title when the screen is black, meaning the text

must be white. 

As you can see, the duct tape effect is not as obvious here, however I think the texture still adds some

mystery to our title, and adds a special touch. Without the texture, I think the font would be too generic.

So for me, it’s not a huge deal.

———

Finally, we decided to use this second font with the bold lettering because it aligns more with our film.

I (Cassie) experimented with the font, size, color and texture. I noticed that most thriller films used

red accents or entirely red typefaces, So I tried it out for our title.

While the red implies violence/blood and connotes danger, the combination of black and red makes

this look like a horror film rather than a thriller. Using a darker red suits our opening more, as dark

red connotes rage or wrath, while a brighter red could represent love. However, the dark red text

is hard to read against the black background.

———

If we kept it white like this, we fear it would be too generic and bland. Plus, it does not really

have a lot of meaning relating to our film opening. 

———

Adding red accents in the textured areas made our title look “bloody”, which fits well with our

kidnapping theme in the movie opening. This also may be a hermeneutic code: How is blood

involved in the next scenes? Did the kidnapper hurt the protagonist? Additionally, the texture

on every letter looks repetitive, as we have double letters with identical textures next to each

other. 

———

If we add the texture on only a few letters and spread it out, it looks less busy and more cohesive.

However, this brings focus to the letters with the texture. In this title, the letters M, S, C and L

have no significance. 

———

Here, the letters I, D, A and L are highlighted. When rearranged, this spells out “DIAL” as in

dialing a number, which is related to the title itself. It also shows its significance in the story. 

The texture is also spread out between letters, making the typeface

———

This is similar to the previous one, however, the letters I, E, D are highlighted instead. When

rearranged, this spells out “DIE”, which gives this title a spooky double meaning or perhaps

foreshadowing, meaning it isn’t supposed to be deciphered at first glance. However, there's an

imbalance as the left side of the design is busier than the right.

———

For our final choice, we held a poll in our group chat for the last 3 options. Finally, we decided

on this one.

———

But wait! The title isn’t the only thing we need to make for our typeface. The credits also matter.

We’re going to include the actual name of our actors in the credits, such as: Cassandra D Merkus,

Kimora C Hartawan, Eileen Milano, Charlyn K Wijaya and Tara C Hartana. 

In thriller films, even the credits help build tension. The fonts used can make the audience feel

uneasy, excited, or curious. So, I watched the opening credits for a few thriller films and noticed

a pattern.

Here, I looked at movies like Get Out, The Silence of The Lambs, and Zodiac. They all had very

simple fonts which showed it was cold, serious and mysterious. So, I picked similar fonts and

put them all together again to compare.

After another poll, we narrowed it down to the first and the last one.

This font has a rough and vintage feel, often associated with mystery, secrecy, and unease.

It is similar with typewritten text from old documents, crime reports or classified files, making

it a great choice for thriller films, especially ones involving investigations or detective work.

This means this might work well with our thriller as our protagonist gets kidnapped, making

her a victim of a terrible crime.

This font is clean and neutral, often linked to technology as it looks typed out. Its simplicity

gives off a calculated vibe, which could work well for a thriller with a "mastermind". Since it

feels controlled, it can be unsettling. It also looks like a text message, which could show the

mothers efforts at contacting her daughter.

——

In the end, we decided to go for the 1st font, as the typewriter gives off a mysterious feel and

the rough edges suggest something bad is happening, making the audience curious.

Colour wise, we are going to keep it simple by keeping the text white to draw focus to the getting

ready scene as it builds the protagonists character, rather than to the actual text.

 

And with that, we are done with the typeface development :)

Reflection: the typeface development helped us compare different fonts to see which one would look

best for our film opening. it was important to choose a font that not only looked good but also gave

meaning to the audience. by trying out different styles, we could easily compare them and helped us

make a better choice.