Method Studios' New York team recently designed the intricate opening titles for "El Chapo," a new series from Univision and Netflix that retells the story of notorious Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The sequence elegantly explores several key themes of the show, including the disparity between El Chapo's private persona and myths portrayed in the media.
Method's team, led by creative director John Likens and lead designer Arisu Kashiwagi, outlined story beats for the sequence, then Univision provided a wide range of archival material from both print and TV news coverage of El Chapo's activities. They then worked to develop a look and style to illustrate the idea of El Chapo having multiple facets to his private and public personas, animating different media clips layered on top of one another that tear away to reveal new clues underneath. Overall, the 90-second sequence challenges viewers to uncover El Chapo's true self.
"El Chapo became a larger than life persona in part due to media coverage, and we wanted to explore how he gained that level of notoriety," Likens said. "We were able to play around with silhouettes of the actors and a wealth of news clippings to visually navigate these questions and establish interesting juxtapositions."