While I believe that I did some fairly similar research for the last Applied Animation module, here is my brief research on title cards, which I believe will allow us to better develop our own for our "animated documentary".
Each episode tends to get their very own unique title card, aside from an illustrated piece that connects to the plot itself, the designers tend to play around with colours, art style, layouts and of course typography, as you look at the examples below, you will notice that they tend to avoid using the same type of font for each title card, and would specially design them so that it would suit their respective episodes.
Tom And Jerry
One of the earliest examples that came to mind was from the Tom and Jerry series, while the Chuck Jones era remains one of my most favourite T&J eras, it was definitely the Hanna Barbera era that had the loveliest title cards for their episodes. As mentioned earlier, the designers would play around with the designs, making sure to keep these designs simple enough so that they were not too busy, while still remaining appealing enough to keep the audience interested.
I especially liked the designs that would feature silhouettes of the two main characters (Such as the ones above),
The Fairly Odd Parents
For the earlier episodes featured in Oh Yeah! Cartoons, the title cards for the Fairly Odd Parents were actually given some simply animations (Such as a wand sparking or a character simply floating up and down), when the series was picked up however, one of the lesser known changes made to the original formula were the now stationary title cards used (Which is honestly understandable since it was not the most important of aspects within the series), this isn't to say however that it makes them any duller.
Much like the rest of the show, these title cards have always used incredibly bright and vibrant colour palettes. While their title designs do change now and then to fit the illustrations, they all do seem a a bit closer to one another in terms of style as compared to the titles used in the Tom and Jerry shorts. There is always a whacky and warped sort of structure when it came to their typography to match the overall cartoony tone of the show.
Adventure Time
Possibly the most recent example out of all of these (Seeing that these cards are also done in an era catering specifically to HD formats) , the Adventure Time series has always been known for their deeply thought out title card designs, with various well known artists being hired over the years to illustrate them. As compared to other present shows (Like Regular Show and Steven Universe, that tends to reuse the same sequence with some minor adjustments made to them now and then), Adventure Time is one of the few shows at the moment that still uses different cards for each episode.
I also felt that the painted style that is so often used for these cards relates to our choice of art style for our own title cards (And backgrounds), though it is not to say that Adventure Time was the only series that uses such a style for their title cards. Shows such as Ren and Stimpy, Ed, Eddy and Eddy and Rocko's Modern Life tend to take advantage of such a style for their stills, and it is notable that the supposedly more detailed and painted style is used and making something just a little more dramatic (Eg, Spongebob Squarepants).
And seeing that these are normally done for stills, it would make sense to take advantage in adding in more details and making a more complex sort of illustration for the audience. Aside from that however, the tone tends to vary from one card to the other, much like the show and it's incredibly random and varied tone in storytelling. As you can see above, some have a much more fantasy-ish tone to them while others are done in more muted if not monochromatic colours, such as this one:
Things just tend to vary a lot when it comes to this series.
Dexter's Laboratory
Much like The Fairly Odd Parents, Dexter's Laboratory also had a couple of title cards with simple animations, but were only ever done for a few episodes in the earlier seasons (The dodge ball episode especially is one of the most memorable episodes within the series).
The styles use tend to vary for this series, some title cards are done in a more painted style, while others are done in the same style as the rest of the show, one thing they all tend to have in common however is the simplicity of their designs. They are still able to present a fairly strong concept without having to throw into much details as Adventure Time does with their own title cards. And for that, I really do like these simpler title cards as compared to far more detailed one (Especially when you also consider the duration for how long these cards tend to be shown).
I always found My Life As A Teenage Robot series to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing of cartoons, and not surprisingly, I also found myself holding a deep appreciation for their title cards. They honestly look like something done by graphic designers as compared to illustrators (Don't get subjective with me here...), as the characters presented in them are incredibly stylised. Namely, the designers seem to play around a lot more with silhouettes and lines (Much like Tom and Jerry), with art deco seeming to be one of their main influences in terms of the overall art direction.
The title cards for this series have a stylishly retro look about them (As mentioned before), that frankly matches the overall style that is used for the rest of the series, even the colours used are slightly muted and does with this retro-ish style (I also get some rather Jessica Hische vibes with some of these cards).
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