Alena Smith
WIIP
Apple

30 main title sequences for AppleTV+

Shine designed and animated the main title sequence for “Dickinson”, an American period black comedy series about Emily Dickinson, created by Alena Smith. The concept employs illustrations and etchings that visually represent Emily Dickinson’s life, relationships and work.

Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, into a prominent family with strong ties to its community. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family’s house in Amherst. Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom.

While Dickinson was a prolific poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime. The poems published then were usually edited significantly to fit conventional poetic rules. Her poems were unique to her era. They contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.

Dickinson was included in Art of the Title’s “2019 Top Ten Main Title Sequences”.

The Emily Dickinson Collection at Harvard
The “Dickinson” production team at Apple donated props, costumes, and other visual materials to the Emily Dickinson Collection at Harvard’s Houghton Library. Also included are all thirty main title sequence design storyboards, bound into hardcover books.