DesignThinkers Podcast · The Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD)

Nadia Tzuo on Storytelling Through Title Design

·49 min·4 clips

Kyle Cooper spotted Nadia's drawings at her grad show and hired her on the spot for a major film project.

Nadia begins with a clean comparison: a title sequence works a lot like a book cover. It gives people a first read on what they are about to spend time with. Sometimes that job is practical. If the audience drops into the middle of a story, the intro may need to get them situated before things move on. More often, it changes the mood in the room. Nadia remembers childhood title sequences less as information and more as that familiar signal that something was about to begin. The host picks up the branding thread. Nicola notes that titles can become the piece people recognize before they settle into the show itself. Nadia agrees, but keeps it specific. On the broadcast side, especially with recurring shows, title design can do real marketing work. Her word for it is glue. It brings people back between seasons and keeps memory, tone, and recognition tied to one repeated form. From there, the question gets narrower. Across multiple seasons, a title sequence might protect the brand that already works, or it might change because the project has changed. Sometimes leaving it alone is the right call. Sometimes the show grows, and the opening has to grow with it. The conversation stays focused on process: how a designer decides what an opening owes the story. It ends simply, with thanks to Nadia and a return to the RGD conference frame.

As heard by us

A thoughtful look at title design as story, brand, and audience cue.

Nadia Zuho makes a clear case for title sequences as part of the story, not just decoration. The discussion is strongest when it stays with that craft logic, tracing how cultural specificity, collaboration, and streaming have reshaped the way audiences meet opening titles.

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Why you'd press play

Hear how title sequences set the mood, build the world, and do the work before the story starts.

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