Shot in a single take and supported by a haunting score by multiple Academy Award-winning composer Michel Legrand, director Jacques Demy and title designer Jean Fouchet created their most memorable title sequence together with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg – one that appears on numerous lists of favorite film credits of all time.

French Fridays updates with Topkapi. Stylish, glamorous and tongue-in-cheek, Topkapi is the epitome of the European crime caper and more or less established the genre of the heist film. The object of desire is the famous dagger inlaid with emeralds from the Topkapi museum in Istanbul. Title designer Jean Fouchet used colored acetate overlays coeated with vaseline and optical special effects to create the illusion of travelling inside a gem stone.

Motion designers are imagining the 3-D interfaces of the future. For Iron Man 2, Prologue envisioned the stunning, holographic, 3-D interfaces that Tony Stark uses to engineer his technological devices. And who doesn't recall the intuitive, spatial interface that Tom Cruise's character works with in one of the defining scenes of Minority Report. And now there's the “Hand Up” – the highly responsive, crystal interface as envisioned by Dvein for the Spanish retro-futuristic thriller Eva. Arguably more poetic in comparison to its predecessors, but Dvein's interface is no less believable.

You could be forgiven thinking that Kyle Cooper and David Fincher collaborated on the titles to The Dark Knight Rises – the upcoming Batman movie that isn't out untill summer. This unofficial title sequence was created as part of a class assignment by a student of Communication Design from Istanbul, Turkey. His name is Doğan Can Gündoğdu.

You've got to give it up for Momoco. This small London studio did what many title designers only dream of – they made their own film. Copelia is a short, intelligent sci-fi love story that features some of the most hallucinogenic futurescapes we've ever seen. Watch the Titles premieres the main title and we picked designer Nic Benns' brain about his pet project, as he shares the amazing process work. A Watch the Titles exclusive.

For the Amsterdam edition of the design and technology event FITC 2012, Dutch motion designers Floris Vos of Soulbase and Menno Fokma harnessed the storytelling potential of the opening title sequence to maximum effect. The designers created a short narrative to remind the viewer how tough it can be to create something, and how ultimately rewarding the creative process can be in the end. Vos talked to us about the process of creating the title sequence and shares mood boards, story boards and typography tests with us.

The Winner of the 2012 Title Design Award as announced on March 13 in Austin, Texas is 'Les Bleus de Ramville' by Jay Bond. The Special Jury Recognition goes to 'X-Men: First Class' by Simon Clowes/Prologue Films. And the Audience chose  'Bunraku' by Guilherme Marcondes/Hornet Inc. as their favorite.

This article updates our previous story about the 2012 nominees for SXSW Excellence in Title Design Awards.

Interview with director Carlos Pardo of the Barcelona-based motion design collective Dvein. The interview was recorded after Dvein's presentation at the "Playgrounds Vs Submarine Channel" event in Amsterdam, during which they premiered the Eva title sequence.

If you think nouvelle vague equals the rough-edged cinematic language by the likes of Godard and Truffaut, think again. The Young Girls of Rochefort by Jacques Demy is an homage to the great Hollywood musical. Featuring George Chakiris alongside the French diva-in-the-making Catherine Deneuve, the film and its magnificent opening sequence represents the quintessence of the French film talent of the era.