By night, I’m John- the crime-fighting proprietor of a movie and TV site. But by day, I’m the mild-mannered John, a graphic designer and editor. Since I get paid to pay attention to words and the way they’re presented, I get a kick out of combining my day job and my hobby. I like seeing which fonts are being used in films and film posters. There are several that are very popular and I’d like to clue you in on which ones are which. Let’s start with a rather obvious one:
Helvetica
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Helvetica is such a clean, simple, and popular font. You can see it everywhere. It’s also versatile, presenting several variations- Light, Oblique, Bold, Black, Condensed, Neue- without sacrificing an ounce of legibility. Nor do any of these variations fail in kerning or tracking. Since it’s such a good font, you have no doubt seen it in several films. The most obvious example is, of course, the 2007 documentary Helvetica. It can also be seen in the poster for Up in the Air (2009), Funny Games (2007), and Little Miss Sunshine (2006), amongst others. If you’re counting at home, that’s a documentary, a drama, a horror/thriller, and a comedy. That’s versatile.
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Futura
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As you can probably tell, Wes Anderson uses Futura a lot. He uses it in every single one of his films. He uses it in title cards, he uses it on street and business signs in the background, he uses it on books… It’s everywhere in his movies. Stanley Kubrick used it a ton before Wes Anderson, most notably in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) but also in Eyes Wide Shut (2000). You may recognize it from American Beauty (1999), V for Vendetta (2006) and The Social Network (2010). Per Wikipedia’s Futura page, it is “derived from simple geometric forms (near-perfect circles, triangles and squares)” and I think that’s evident in the example above and to the right.
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Windsor FF-Elongated
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To be completely honest, I know of only one type of film that employs this font- Woody Allen films. The appearance of a white intertitle composed in Windsor Elongated on a black background is such incredible branding. Woody Allen’s films are distinct enough as they are but adding a static element like this only serves to further the brand (pardon me for using the phrase, but it’s true).
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ITC Benguiat
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Just as Windsor Elongated belongs to Woody Allen, ITC Benguiat belongs to Quentin Tarantino. He doesn’t use it exclusively but he does use it from time to time. And he’s more or less the only one that uses it with any frequency. Created in 1978 by noted typographer Ed Benguiat, it appeared to be a bit dated in the early 90’s until Tarantino gave it new life in Pulp Fiction (1994).
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Gill Sans
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I am admittedly not a fan of Gill Sans. But that’s just my own personal bias. Personally, I find it a bit too clunky and whimsical in a sloppy way, and it appears completely dated right now. But, I wouldn’t be doing my job as Dean of Font U. if I didn’t edumacate you about it. It seems to have found a home with kids movies and comedies, which isn’t entirely surprising. And my understanding is that it’s quite popular in the U.K., serving as their version of our Helvetica here in the U.S. You can find Gill Sans in the Toy Story series, as well as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986).
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Trajan
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Trajan is all over the place, and has been for quite some time. The classic look gives it a Roman type of feel, which makes it somewhat timeless. Aside from being used in superhero movies about Norse Gods, you can also find it in Titanic (1997), I Am Legend (2007), and Unbreakable (2000). In fact, Kirby Ferguson over at Goodie Bag does a pretty funny job of telling you all the places you can find Trajan. It’s well worth the watch.
