There is no mistaking that Netflix's Stranger Things has become a cult hit within a month, or even a couple of weeks, since its release on July 15th.
There have been 30 and 40-somethings having nostalgia trips back to their 80s childhood and lapping up the nods to their favourite 80s Movies. There are references to E.T., The Goonies, Poltergeist, Alien, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Stand By Me and even The Shining and Commando! These are what I have spotted anyway and I am sure their are more.
But throughout the whole season the one thing that got me hooked from the start was the credits.
Those first 52 seconds...
The sequence was created by a studio in LA called Imaginary Forces. They were obsesed with a designer called Richard Greenburg. He had made some classic titles for films such as The Untouchables, The Goonies and Superman. Those titles felt epic to them and their mission was to recreate this feeling. He used titles; title graphics and titles over titles.
Something like The Untouchables which is basically just a font! It’s so epic and memorable, they wanted to go back to that simplicity.
With its Lucas-esuqe font outline glowing against a black background, the opening titles sets up perfectly what the atmospherics will be like. (This is also reflected in the poster artwork at the bottom of this post)
Add Stephen Kings influence of a bolder case in red adding more reference to its design and it becomes very haunting.
Furthermore, the synth soundtrack and the titles combine to create a mysterious and spooky invitation that draws you closer to your TV.
If you were curious about which font was used for Stranger Things and wanted to recreate a design using it, well here it is. It's called Benguiat or ICT Benguiat Condensed.
The 80s synth track was the creation of musicians S U R V I V E. An Austin, Texas-based analog electronic quartet. The music the produce is a fresh, bewildering update of vintage horror and sci-fi film scores as well as experimental ambient music and minimum wave.
They were formed in 2008 but have now exploded onto the scene since Stranger Things and with them brought the Synth Wave music genre with them.
Below is A.H.B. a track from their re-released album "RR7349" out in September.
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