Mavis!

Mavis! Opening Titles

Context

Design opening titles and interstitial graphics for "Mavis!" an HBO Films documentary about gospel/soul legend Mavis Staples.

Strategy

Capture the spirit of Soul music through experimental color treatments, iconography and visual gems from the Stax archives, while modernizing the look with graphic transitions.

Solution

Animated sequences bring the story of the music icon to life and highlight the complex social and political history that is inseparable from the music. The film won a Peabody Award in 2017.

Title Design

Inspired by the color palettes and iconography of 1970s album covers, we applied a duotone treatment to curated photographs.

Simple transitions driven by the Staple Singers’ hit, “I’ll Take You There,” modernize the look and feel of the titles as they follow the trajectory of Mavis’s career, from the early days of the Staple Singers, to the Stax Record era, and into the present day.

Interstitials

We brought retro graphics to life through motion design to capture the spirit of the era.

Retro graphics from the Stax archives appear throughout the film, supplementing interview footage and audio from artists including Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, and Chuck D. They serve to highlight the social and political movements that are inseparable from the music.