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Wayward Main Titles: A Study in Analog Innovation and Conceptual Storytelling
Bleach. Household chemicals. Heat. Fire. These aren't typical tools for a title designer but for Wayward, they became the perfect instruments to visualize psychological manipulation and the destruction of identity.
In early 2025, we designed the main titles for Wayward, Netflix's psychological thriller that became the #1 globally streamed show in its first two weeks.
The series follows two teenagers, a local police officer, and the sinister head of Tall Pines Academy—a school for "troubled teens"—that explores themes of trauma, generational issues, and institutional abuse.
Wayward launches each episode with an intense cold open that grabs the audience instantly. We needed titles that could interrupt that momentum without breaking it—or rather, that could be an interruption in a way that felt intentional and unsettling.
What started as a far-reaching creative exploration evolved into something unexpected: eight unique title cards, each running less than five seconds, created by destroying Polaroid photographs with household chemicals, heat, and fire.
The execution became a hybrid of digital precision and analog chaos. A return to tactile experimentation that felt right for this particular story. The concept came together at a time when synthetic-looking content was flooding the creative sphere.
We wanted something hand-crafted, something that carried the marks of human hands. We reflected back on the chaos and DIY spirit of teenage art-making in the late '90s and early 2000s—perfectly aligned with Wayward's 2001-2003 setting—and unearthed old photography techniques: Polaroid emulsion lifts, pigment transfers, aggressive analog experiments.
Wayward is about resisting the forces that try to flatten who you are. It’s about generational pain, institutional pressure, the raw chaos of adolescence. For a story that honors the complexity of being human, the most authentic thing we could do was create the titles the same way—with our hands, through experimentation, embracing outcomes we couldn't fully control, and sculpting those outcomes into something that served the story
Manipulating Polaroid photo emulsion with chemicals mirrors the psychological manipulation that the teens endure at Tall Pines Academy. Both take something raw—a captured memory or a developing mind—and distort it under external pressure. The vibrant image becomes blurred and broken, just as individuality is shattered and reshaped into something unrecognizable.
This project represents a technical challenge and a philosophical stance about craft.
At a moment when content creation increasingly leans toward digital efficiency, these titles argue for the irreplaceable value of work made by hand—with intention, experimentation, and care.
Netflix and the show creators supported an unusual analog approach when they could have asked for something safer. That trust made the difference. We're immensely proud of the craftsmanship that went into this project.
Creative Director: Julia Deakin Design + Animation: Julia DeakinProduction Company: IAMSTATICExecutive Creative Directors: Ron Gervais, Dave GreeneSenior Producer: Nicole LabbeClient: NetflixExecutive Producer, Creator & Showrunner: Mae Martin, Ryan ScottExecutive Producer: Euros LynnPost Production Executive Producer: Andrea Glinski
