Telling a Story
14 February 2024
*from personal Pinterest page*
Movies and television shows are a sign of the times and a true pop culture staple in our society. We as a society are very visual and we immediately are able to recognize movies and TV shows based on the promotional posters alone (without the title and or words). I have always found it interesting to see what movies and TV shows have stuck with us over decades and become iconic history points of reference. But, the thing that I find the most interesting about all of this is the typography that is used to create these iconic moments. Jaws, Casablanca, Star Wars, The Godfather, Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Rocky, and some lesser known ones like Some Like It Hot, Dirty Dancing, Cleopatra, Once Upon A Time In The West, and How To Steal A Million are all movies that have some pretty amazing typography included on their promotional posters. According to Grace Fussell for envatotus+.com, “Early in the 20th century, movies studios realized that the memorability of a film title and its accompanying poster were key to enticing audiences into cinemas. They created eye-catching movie titles for posters and credits, often themed on the genre and narrative of the film.” From bold and daring typeface choices like StarWars and Jaws to smaller font choices like Ladybird and Ghost, typefaces have been a part of the entertainment world far longer than we have ever thought.
In the old Hollywood era, creating movie posters and curating typefaces to go along with it was an art form. According to Grace Fussell for envatotus+.com, “Classic movie poster fonts created during the 1940s were designed with heavy shadowing and chunky lettering, to allow titles to stand out just as well as black-and-white opening credits as on lithographic-printed colour posters. By the advent of Technicolor in the 50s, movie poster fonts had evolved into ultra-vivid, 3D-style designs, with the epic titling for major releases like Ben Hur setting the bar for movie type of the future.”
“...typeface choices like StarWars and Jaws to smaller font choices like Ladybird and Ghost, typefaces have been a part of the entertainment world far longer than we have ever thought.”
Years following the 40s and 50s is where we see the unique and fun typefaces featured in Jurassic Park, E.T., Gremlins, Dirty Dancing, and Clueless. Speaking of trends, there are many typography trends in movie posters and TV shows that we as a society do not even blink an eye over. It is so common to see the same color typeface or same typeface choice for the same genre of movie. For example, a lot of comedy movies have big bold red text included in the movie poster like The Proposal, American Pie, and in pink letters, Bridesmaids. In addition, action movies like The Avengers, Star Trek, Tron, Jupiter Ascending all have square, modern, and a fluorescent glow to their typefaces on the promotional posters. All of these rules for movie poster typography highlighted from printmag.com are “rules'' that have been followed for years but sometimes people break these rules. Breaking typography rules can be ground-breaking but also can hinder the movie because viewers might get the wrong idea of what the movie is about. Movie posters are in general some of the coolest and most unique pieces of art ever.
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
Hi there! I’m Lauren Melville.
I love to delve deep into the world of graphic design, exploring areas like branding, typography, and advertising campaign strategies.