Crime and Punishment (1979)

Concept and creative process

Opening titles for the BBC2 Classic Serial dramatised in three parts by Jack Pulman. Using a similar technique to the one he had used the previous year for the generic identity of the ambitious ‘BBC Television Shakespeare’ series, Alan Jeapes again fell back on his love of the craft of typography for the solution to the titles of a major drama classic. The text was set in a classic serif typeface, all in capitals with a dropped capital letter at the start of each name. The titles built up, fading in line by line to become a complete screen of black text over a heavy textured, cream coloured paper background. Once the final line had appeared, the focus was pulled and the resulting blur split in two, with each half disappearing into the other to leave a clean textless background.

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