Movie titles are the very fun and perhaps the most challenging projects for a lettering designer. Often the deadline is 24 hours or less, the competition is fierce, and the brief for what is wanted can change from moment to moment even as you are filling your pen. "I'll know it when I see it" was invented for this kind of project.
At least with Steven Spielberg's "Spiderwick" we had a completely fabulous word to work with. It is a word that seems to know how it wants to look, and it looks how it sounds-- a little bit edgy and scary and a little bit dusty and spidery and pretty much how you would expect an estate full of faeries with a resident curmudgeon named "Thimbletack" to look. Since I grew up completely believing in Narnia this was my dream project. It went through many phases, only a small portion of which I am sharing here.
I started out in the style of a hobgoblin, very storybook, and always wondering, "What would Thimbletack think??" I used a metal quill and rough paper and worked very quickly.
Here I changed up the paper and pens for a smoother look. A mix of ruling pen and edged pen on cartridge paper or bristol. I didn't experiment much with elaborate flourishes because I knew other elements would be placed above and below.
A weight test with drop shadow, looking at impact from far away on a poster, and legibility.
Rough paper and a ruling pen, with one edged pen at the top, thinking about legibility and bolder weights for impact.
One last script variation, my favorite, before they decided to go with upper case:
The final poster, with effects applied by the movie studio.
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