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Nina Saxon, one of the entertainment industrys leading designers specializing in main and end titles, title sequences, and animated motion graphics logos for major motion pictures, television movies and TV programs, as well as for entertainment production companies, is currently celebrating her 40th Anniversary Year in Hollywood. Concurrently, her newest project - designing the film titles for the upcoming documentary about Paul McCartney entitled Here, There, and Everywhere, will mark Saxon's 350th career title project. Over the span of her 40-year career, Saxon established herself as a pillar of title sequence design, a defining figure of the branded blockbuster film, a logo legend, and a master of painting with light.
In 1996, critic Laurie Halpern Benenson, writing for the New York Times, called Nina Saxon one of the most sought-after designers in the business and it was true: some years, she could barely keep up with demand. Her compelling visions and iconic graphics can be found in the familiar type of Back to the Future , the glowing grin of Stay Tuned , and the floating feather of Forrest Gump (1994).
During the past 40 years, I have been truly blessed to have been involved in 350 main title sequences for films and/or TV series, working with countless top directors including Robert Zemeckis, Martin Scorsese, Mike Nichols, Wolfgang Peterson, Michael Dinner, David Steinberg, William Friedkin, Michael Lehmann, Phillip Noyce, Barry Levinson, and Lasse Halstr m; producers including Stephen Bochco, Bruce Paltrow, and Sherry Lansing; and editors such as Zach Steinberg, Raja Gosnell and Dennis Verkler. I am extremely grateful to these men, and to all of the other amazing men and women behind the camera, whose creative vision helped inspire me to design many of these now-iconic titles, Saxon said.
ABOUT NINA SAXON'S EARLY CAREER:
According to a recent profile of Saxon by by Lola Landekic on the site Art of the Title: If the 1950s and '60s was the Designer era of title sequences, dominated by creators with identifiable aesthetic signatures like Saul Bass, Maurice Binder and Pablo Ferro, then the 1980s was the Logo era, dominated by creators like Nina Saxon, Richard Greenberg and Richard Morrison. For Saxon, it wasn't just her ability to design effective and vibrant title logos that set her apart. It was her devotion to both practice and practicalities, her ability to read the room and to navigate the intricacies of a deal - or, to use her words, to hustle. Because she transitioned into the craft after working as a visual effects artist and animator, most notably on the first three Star Wars films, she was as comfortable with optical effects, mattes and typography as she was with animation, down-shooter cameras and stop-motion. Perhaps that is also why she was able to approach title design with fresh eyes and usher in a new era: the branded blockbuster film.
From the bodice-ripping swashes of Romancing the Stone (1984) and the shimmering capitals of The Little Mermaid and the spinning sandwiches of Good Burger (1997), and from the glowing markup of Antitrust (2001) to the blinged-out branding of Beauty Shop (2005), Saxon experimented with typography, technique and media, creating a distinct aesthetic solution for each project - her work disappearing into the scene entirely where necessary - and leaving an indelible mark on the industry.
But she didn't start out with movies in mind. Her initial plan? I was going to be a psychologist, she says. After getting into the University of California, Los Angeles, she enrolled in a smattering of elective classes in film and animation and found she enjoyed it. Her first film assignment was to make a short, which she decided to shoot on location with Planned Parenthood. She filmed a childbirth which she intercut with music. The short nabbed her the Jim Morrison Film Award and that was it. I got hooked into the movie business, she says.
She set out to find a job and, after sending letters to every creative director she could find in San Francisco and L.A., she got a phone call from director John Korty. He had just won an Academy Award for the documentary Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? and he had a job for her. Saxon recalls that he said, If you come up here to Mill Valley, I could pay you $100 a week. You're gonna work nine 'til two in the morning, probably six weeks. She put her belongings in a trunk and headed north.
Other notable Korty Films alumni have included directors David Fincher (Se7en) and Henry Selick (Coraline), editor Marcia Lucas (Star Wars), screenwriter David Webb Peoples (Blade Runner), and production designer Harley Jessup (Monsters, Inc.). It was in this Mill Valley milieu that Saxon met editor Donn Cambern, who became her mentor. When there was a lull in projects, Saxon called Cambern, who mentioned that there was a movie assembling crew and the production manager owed him a favor. They were hiring 900 people. It was called Star Wars. Was she interested? Saxon didn't think the film had much going for it, but she saw an opportunity to expand her skills. So I went to work for an optical house and learned how to do the laser bullets! she recalls fondly.
NINA SAXON'S TOP TEN FAVORITE FEATURE FILM MAIN TITLES:
Romancing the Stone (1984): Says Saxon, I made a deal with Michael Douglas on this picture that I would go with him to PR meetings. As a result, I helped to redesign their original title, which had a lower case r' that didn't feel right to me. To give the impression of a powerful romance novel, we needed a capital R' to make a bigger swash. Michael agreed with my vision and helped me convince director Robert Zemeckis to go with my revised design.
Back to the Future (1985): This was Bob Zemeckis' first big hit, recal
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