Cinema
It amazes me how few movies have an identity. While millions of dollars are spent on the marketing campaign of Hollywood movies, their logos or wordmarks are usually much cheaper: $35 (the price of the Trajan ‘movie font.’ on MyFonts.com). Logos [...]1980s horror movie poster logos and typography.
Lettering and typography from the pre-Trajan era
Hollywood studios used to have their own in-house designers, which explains why some title designs have the same style. Until the late 1950s they were mostly created by National Screen Service, the company which controlled the distribution of theatrical [...]Warner Bros. trailer typography
25 years worth of trailer typography: 1930-1955
Today, April 25, marks the 15th anniversary of the death of Saul Bass (1920-1996) one of the best, beloved and prolific designers of all time. We’re all familiar with (a fraction of) Bass’ work: the title sequences, movie posters and logos. But that’s just the tip of [...]Saul Bass’ Vertigo movie poster design
An overview of the various designs Bass created for the film: posters, inserts, window cards, lobby cards and ads
Designers today have it easy. A computer, a copy of Adobe® Photoshop® and a couple of typefaces, that’s all they need to create a movie poster. Sixty years ago things were different. Floating heads were painted instead of copied and pasted. Letters were [...]German Warner Bros. movie poster typography
Hand lettering by German poster designer Hans Otto Wendt
When Saul Bass worked for Hollywood studios he created a complete and consistent identity for films (main and credit titles, a symbol or trademark, trailers, posters, ads, album cover). Director Otto Preminger persuaded studios to use Bass’ work, which [...]Saul Bass’ movie posters: then and now
What's left of Saul Bass’ movie posters on today's DVD packaging design
About five years ago the typeface Trajan was used so ubiquitously on movie posters it became known as ‘the movie font.’ Later, when the typeface Gotham was used in Obama’s campaign it became the new go-to font for movie poster designers. [...]Warner Bros. 1930s movie poster typography
Script lettering from movie posters, inserts, window and lobby cards
“I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum.” That’s all I knew about John Carpenter’s ‘They live’ when I watched it for the first time. I expected a silly action movie, which it was to a certain extent, but the scene shown [...]