The Art of the Title

The opening title card of a motion picture sets a tone and graphic style that in some cases can have a life of its own separate from the actual movie (think Star Wars). A excellent short primer on the history of title cards can be seen in, The Art of the Title, edited by Ian Albinson (see above). You'll see opening title cards from the silent film Intolerance to the modern day The Social Network.

While on the subject of movie title cards take a look at a website entitled imaginatively enough, Movie Title Stills Collection, a website by Christian Annyas. He is a very skilled graphic designer with a fascination with movie graphics. His personal webpage and Movie Title Stills Collection are really fun to navigate around. Especially if you admire (as Christian does) the work of Saul Bass (Vertigo, North by Northwest, The Man with the Golden Arm, West Side Story)
http://www.annyas.com/screenshots/
http://annyas.com/

One of my favorite title cards is from the 1931 Friz Lang directed film, M. What is your's?