As much as I give a lot of credit to Saul Bass for making very beautiful title sequences and credit rolls I kind of figure I need to see what people are doing presently. I really want to see how they focused typography and composition with their motion graphics. This is when I stumbled across a studio known as MK12 - http://www.mk12.com.
MK12 was formed in Kansas City around the early part of 2000. The company was founded by Ben Radatz, Jed Carter, Matt Fraction, Shaun Hamontree, and Tim Fischer whom are all graduates of Kansas City Art Institute. There big break came from outside investors that saw their freelance web work and pushed them to try for more ambitious projects. MK12's aesthetics are derived for their love for strong narratives and good design. They keep their prospective on the design community fresh by taking on in-house projects that are posted on their web site.
Pop culture seems to have a major contribution to their work and the execution of their themes are key to their success. MK12 has a wide array of clients from NBC, CBS, HBO, to the New York Times. Some of their most recent work can be seen in Quantum of Solace. I personally find their work very attractive in how they convey the material they are contracted for. What caught my eye was the visuals for the opening sequence to Stranger Than Fiction. ( http://media2.mk12.com/v5_qt_html/2007/stf_opening_sequence.html ). Watching how the typography interacted with the lead character was pretty amazing to me. It made me feel as if I was OCD and I could go along with the character from day to day as he counted his steps, or made major bank calculations. Another impressive piece would be their sequence for Kite Runner that can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G952eVWouv4. Again the part that attracts me is their dedication to capturing the culture of the material, and their ability to stick close to the aesthetics they put on themselves.
