Godspeed Pablo Ferro

Graphic designer and title designer Pablo Ferro died on November 16 2018 at the age of 83. The cause was complications from pneumonia. Mr. Ferro designed titles for movies from Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) to L. A. Confidential (1997).

Pablo Ferro was born on January 15 1935 in Antilla, Oriente Province, Cuba. As a child he enjoyed drawing. When he was 12 his family moved to New York City. His father left the family two years later. To help his mother support his family, young Pablo Ferro took whatever odd jobs he could get. Among these jobs was that of an usher at a cinema specialising in foreign films. It was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with the movies. He taught himself animation using one of legendary animator Preston Blair's books.

Mr. Ferro attended the School of Industrial Art. In the early Fifties, he served as an illustrator at the company that would become Marvel Comics. In the mid-Fifties he freelanced as an animator for Academy Pictures and Elektra Studios. It was while he was at Elektra that he designed the first version of the NBC peacock. He began directing television commercials later in the Fifties. It was in 1961 that he formed the partnership Ferro, Mohammed & Schwartz, Inc. with animator Fred Mogubgub and comic book artist Lew Schwartz.

Pablo Ferro broke into title design with Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Stanley Kubrick had seen Mr. Ferro's commercials and, as a result, hired him to create the movie's trailer. Suitably impressed by the trailer that Pablo Ferro had created, he asked him to create the film's title sequence as well. He formed his own company, Pablo Ferro Films, in 1964. In the Sixties he would also create titles for Woman of Straw (1964), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Bullitt (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968), and Midnight Cowboy (1969).

In the Seventies Pablo Ferro served as a title designer on the films A Clockwork Orange (1971), Harold and Maude (1971), Bound for Glory (1976), Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977), Handle with Care (1977), Last Embrace (1979), and Being There (1979). In the Eighties he served as title designer on the films Second-Hand Harts (1981), I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982), Amityville 3-D (1983), Swing Shift (1984), No Way Out (1987), Prince of Darkness (1987), No Man's Land (1987), Johnny Be Good (1988), Beetlejuice (1988), Married to the Mob (1988), Oro fino (1989), Heart Condition (1990), Maniac Cop (1990), Pump Up the Volume (1990), Darkman (1990), and Book of Love (1990).

In the Nineties Mr. Ferro designed titles for such movies as Career Opportunities (1991), Mobsters (1991), The Addams Family (1991),  Malice (1993), Addams Family Values (1993), Philadelphia (1993), Milk Money (1994), To Die For (1995), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), Mrs. Winterbourne (1996), That Thing You Do! (1996), Anna Karenina (1997), L.A. Confidential (1997), Men in Black (1997), Good Will Hunting (1997), As Good as It Gets (1997), Hope Floats (1998), Beloved (1998), and For Love of the Game (1999).

In the Naughts Pablo Ferro was the title designer for Bones (2001), My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), Men in Black II (2002), The Truth About Charlie (2002), Napoleon Dynamite (2004), The Door in the Floor (2004), The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Iowa (2005), Tweek City (2005), Starter for 10 (2006), Cthulhu (2007), The Ministers (2009), Howl (2010), and How Do You Know (2010). In the Teens he designed titles for the movies Larry Crowne (2011), Men in Black 3 (2012), and Sins of Our Youth (2014).

Over the years Pablo Ferro also served in the editorial department and created montages for such films as Handle with Care (1977), Second-Hand Hearts (1981), Beatlemania (1981), Trouble in Mind (1985), No Man's Land (1987), Pump Up the Volume (1990), Darkman (1990), Mobsters (1991), and The Truth About Charlie (2002). He also designed titles for a few TV movies.

Pablo Ferro was revolutionary when it came to movie titles. He utilised rapid cuts, hand-drawn titles, and multiple images shown on the screen all at once. What is more, his titles always fit the movie. His titles for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb made it clear that the film was a comedy. His titles for The Thomas Crown Affair fit a heist film. Short of Saul Bass, there was probably no greater title designer than Pablo Ferro.