Created mostly in Blender at Meat Dept., a collective of digital artists led by co-directors Kevin Van Der Meiren and David Nicolas, the titles were the first Hollywood production for the duo, whose output, since 2016, has included offbeat and inventive shorts and music videos, such as the Sundance sci-fi comedy Black Holes, an episode of Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots entitled Automated Customer Service
J.J. Abrams sensed his upcoming series’ anarchic vibe, conceived as a tribute to the 1970s car-chase movies, would be a match with the studio’s imaginative visual aesthetic.
J.J. and [series co-creator] LaToya said, “We have this new show coming up, and we want you to make the title design.” They gave us a lot of room. They talked a little bit about the style and the vibe of the show, and said, “Don’t be scared of being yourself. Go for it.”
The titles evolve from Episode 1 to Episode 8. Each time, we included Easter eggs specific to each episode. Our idea was to inject surrealism into those evolutions, so going from Episode 1 to Episode 8, the sequence becomes more crazy and surreal.
One episode at a time, we added little pieces. We added blue suede shoes [hanging from a telephone wire], and in the next episode, there’s a Rolodex with information inside that is important for that episode. Later, there’s a wonderful Howard Hughes Aero-Mobile car that appears in the show.
