The Birds

The Birds_movie Alfred Hitchock’s The Birds (1963) is one of my favorite films. This font was inspired by its opening titles which were designed by James S. Pollak. Each name appears in a serifless roman font, then is broken up and reassembled by the images of birds flapping past.

The letterforms are my own variation on Optima with certain letters altered to match the film’s. The bird shapes are based on my own photos of swarming crows on Thanksgiving 2004. The result doesn’t match the individual film titles, but suggests the entire sequence of breaking letters and passing birds.

An interesting contrast to The Birds’ black birds are Mary Poppins’ white birds, also animated by Ub Iwerks.

THE BIRDS stars Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Veronica Cartwright, and “introducing ‘Tippi’ Hedren.” An excellent study of the film is Camille Paglia’s monograph for the BFI Classics series.

Includes two variations of each capital, plus punctuation, numbers, and international characters.

The Birds_anim