As I have previously mentioned throughout this week, and study of Wes Anderson and his films, I have noted his use, and love of the Futura typeface- much like his predecessor director, Woody Allen found a voice through typography in his films. A consistent feature throughout his films, which, for a graphic designer like me, is sure to bring delight. Below are sourced examples I have found online which look into Wes Anderson's use of Futura, and it's history, in closer detail:
Sourced from http://kottke.org/04/11/futura-and-wes-anderson
Futura and Wes Anderson
Every year around this time, my thoughts turn to Wes Anderson and Futura. As noted elsewhere, Mr. Anderson is consistent in his use of Futura (bold) in his films. The supporting materials for The Life Aquatic (which opens here in NYC on Dec 10) continue the Futura trend, with the font appearing in the trailers and on posters. (A little Helvetica -- or worse, Arial -- has somehow crept onto this new poster, probably slapped on there by some intern when Someone Important noticed that Bill Murray's name wasn't on there.) What I've never been able to find an answer to, Wes, is why the Futura? This Typophile thread (kind of) suggests that David Wasco, Anderson's production designer on Tenenbaums, may have had something to do with it. Or is it a shout-out to Stanley Kubrick, who was partial to Futura Extra Bold? Does anyone know?
There are 23 reader comments
• Nov 23 2004 • 11:18PM
almost on topic.• Nov 23 2004 • 11:30PM
The origin I don't know, but Bill MURRAY is in Helvetica Neue, not Arial. I So I guess it's not THAT bad.• Nov 23 2004 • 11:58PM
I don't think it's connected to Wes Anderson, but the TV show "Lost" also uses Futura to good effect for its opening title and credits (I'm pretty sure). However, at the end of every episode they flash the title LOST on the screen, in what looks like Verdana. Damn those interns!• Nov 24 2004 • 12:00AM
Hey correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this website currently being viewed in Arial? Come on now, it's not gorgeous but it's not Chicago either.• Nov 24 2004 • 12:09AM
it's because of old italian films. the credits were in futura and in different cases. so it would be like Firstname LASTNAME.Anderson talks about it in the Rushmore commentary track.
• Nov 24 2004 • 12:10AM
he tells you why he loves futura on the rushmore dvd commentary... I can't remember exactly, but i think it's because of some german/film noir?? films that he really loved in his youth. I think he uses it as a tribute to them.• Nov 24 2004 • 12:45AM
I'm not sure what Mr. Anderson's deal is, but I can relate. Futura is beautiful.By the way, Brian P., it looks to me like this site is in Lucida Grande.
• Nov 24 2004 • 12:51AM
Any updated links? Typophile thread is "Under Construction" and the poster has ceased to exist.• Nov 24 2004 • 1:47AM
Interesting to note, Stanley Kubrick's favorite typeface was Futura Extra Bold. One of the many nice facts from the great article, Citizen Kane.• Nov 24 2004 • 3:02AM
I can appreciate a sans-serif..always smooth, always dry...never lets you down...• Nov 24 2004 • 7:02AM
The Adobe Futura page manages to work a Mr Quick Brown Fox into Futura, so Wes may be able to do likewise with Fantastic Mr Fox?• Nov 24 2004 • 7:45AM
Didn't Woody Allen use it?• Nov 24 2004 • 9:45AM
Futura is a classic typeface, used consistently/repeatedly by designers worldwide for years. Wes Anderson also using it consistently/repeatedly in his films doesn't strike me as bizarre or even noteworthy. I like Wes Anderson plenty, but I doubt that his use of Futura signals some hidden conceptual agenda.And throwing Helvetica in with Arial... !? That hurts.
• Nov 24 2004 • 10:19AM
Woody Allen used Windsor. I haven't read the Typohile threads, but I'd gues that the inline type used for "The Life Aquatic" is Nobel, or Venus--the "C" isn't Futura. Sometimes a font is just a font.• Nov 24 2004 • 10:52AM
It's just branding. You know how Pepsi bottles look so they can tell you what's inside?Jessica/giloco -- you're right. You can see Futura credits throughout mid-century European cinema. Anderson's strongest nod was in his short version of Bottle Rocket that played at Sundance and got him the deal to do the feature. It's very French.
• Nov 24 2004 • 11:55AM
no no no... woody alen uses a serifed font. All the fonts in discussion are sans-serif. ...but you're thinking along the right lines. Every Woody Allen film has the same credits: white Windsor type on a black bg.• Nov 24 2004 • 12:16PM
Not to get too off-topic here, but does anyone else think that in the opening "Lost" titles the word "LOST" is poorly rendered? It starts off blurry (intentional) and becomes more in focus as it gets closer to the camera. But in the last second before it cuts to black (and then commercial) you can see the individual polygons forming the curves of the O and S.Eh, maybe I'm just picky.
But that's why I'm a graphic designer... commenting on a blog post about a typeface in a movies. :)
• Nov 24 2004 • 6:41PM
I'd love to hear some comments on the typography featured in the new FOX show "House." I don't have a particularly strong opinion about the show one way or the other, but I found the typography in the titles and on set to be really surprisingly distinctive.• Nov 24 2004 • 8:27PM
The type used in Dogma is also very interesting. It has the alchemy style which delivers a mystical feeling.• Nov 24 2004 • 8:40PM
Thoroughly enjoyed that Kubrick article, Mr Kottke. Another fine link.• Nov 25 2004 • 1:21AM
I've been pointing out the Anderson/Kubrick typeface obsessions for some time now. Just not online.[In other words, I have no proof.]
• Nov 25 2004 • 1:34PM
I was trained a bit in design by a graphic design friend. He turned me on to Futura Extra Bold and Palatino (or Garamond). It's an absolutely beautiful combination. I've used it consistently for years. I didn't know others had such an obsession with it, too. Thanks for lettimg me know. This durn Web thang, you just don't know what you'll find out from it, do you?• Nov 26 2004 • 8:59AM
It's funny - I've been around and around and AROUND with experimental fonts for various blogs and photography portals in recent years, and always seem to come slinking back to Verdana (which incidentally, Brian P, is what this blog is currently displayed in, not arial - although as with most sites utilising the former, the latter is likely to be listed in the css as a 'backup' option).
Whilst it's a tad boring continually returning to Verdana, I think it serves blogs very well, because most blogs try to be at least slightly amusing - and for my money, Verdana has a certain buffoonery to it, a kind of slightly tongue-in-cheek campness that makes a written paragraph look as if the author was grinning wryly at the time.
I once made a beautiful-looking website on a Mac, using OSX, on which the main body font was either Georgia or Geneva (I can't quite remember now) - it looked absolutely stunning at 10px on the Mac running a Safari browser. Howeverm it looked bloody rubbish in IE - all jerky and scratchy, as if it wasn't anti-aliased - and so I scrapped it and reverted to...well, you all know the rest. Bloody IE! ARGH! ;-)
Whilst it's a tad boring continually returning to Verdana, I think it serves blogs very well, because most blogs try to be at least slightly amusing - and for my money, Verdana has a certain buffoonery to it, a kind of slightly tongue-in-cheek campness that makes a written paragraph look as if the author was grinning wryly at the time.
I once made a beautiful-looking website on a Mac, using OSX, on which the main body font was either Georgia or Geneva (I can't quite remember now) - it looked absolutely stunning at 10px on the Mac running a Safari browser. Howeverm it looked bloody rubbish in IE - all jerky and scratchy, as if it wasn't anti-aliased - and so I scrapped it and reverted to...well, you all know the rest. Bloody IE! ARGH! ;-)
Royal Tenenbaum's World of Futura
Quite a few people wrote me to ask about the type in The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). The type isn’t anachronistic so much as idiosyncratic. Director Wes Anderson seems to have a thing, bordering on obsession, for Futura. The credits are set in Futura Bold—nothing strange about that. But it doesn’t stop there. The Tenenbaums seem to exist in a world dominated by Futura (mainly Futura Bold):
On buses:
At the hospital:
More buses (slanted this time):
For a cruise line (notice it’s called Royal Arctic):
At the museum (Medium weight instead of Bold):
On posters (Margot Tenenbaum seems to favor Medium):
Yet, as much as Futura is used in the movie, a few other typefaces make their appearances. Interestingly, it is usually in connection to someone or something outside the Tenenbaum family and is usually Helvetica:
On Raleigh St. Clair’s books:
On Henry Sherman’s book:
A curious (and possibly significant) exception to this pattern is on the cover of a book supposedly written in the 1970s by Royal Tenenbaum’s wife, Etheline. The typeface is Milano, a quintessentially 1970s choice:
I give The Royal Tenenbaums five out of five stars for its use of type, not because it’s perfectly chosen for the period it depicts (though, as far as that goes, it is), but because Anderson has used type in such an integral way in the film. (I also happen to like Wes Anderson films a lot.)
Sourced from http://mslk.com/reactions/wes-andersons-futura/
Wes Anderson’s Futura
Unlike the ubiquitous and easily adaptable Helvetica, Futura can often be challenging to use. It was one of the first sans-serif fonts developed, and it was a radical departure from typography’s past. Developed by Paul Renner in 1928, Futura was a study in geometry. The characters are based on perfectly proportioned squares, triangles and circles, and the stroke is almost perfectly even throughout. These geometric shapes, however, coupled with exaggerated ascenders and descenders often create awkward spaces and can be problematic from a readability standpoint.
As a display typeface, though, Futura evokes the modern and often goofy spirit of the ’60s. It seems the perfect companion to the endearing characters in Anderson’s films who take themselves a tad too seriously. The idiosyncrasies that the typeface makes when the nearly perfect characters combine to form words and sentences somehow matches that of the characters and experience of a Wes Anderson film. Simultaneously perfect and imperfect.
7 Comments
I love when directors find a “voice” through a certain font. Woody Allen has used the same font (Windsor set in white on a black background with dixieland jazz as the music), in just about every film he’s ever made.
Wes does have an instantly recognizable style, thanks in part to Futura. I love his movies too, but with his high-profile image I feel like Futura is ruined now! If I use it it feels like a rip-off.
New term for the 21st century: font-biter.
New term for the 21st century: font-biter.
Hey Matt,
Font-biter… I love it. I totally know what you mean, though. In fact, I have a hard time using Futura now without it feeling toungue-in-cheek.
If it’s any consolation, Wes is a bit of a font-biter himself. Stanley Kubrick is the Futura-Film originator.
Font-biter… I love it. I totally know what you mean, though. In fact, I have a hard time using Futura now without it feeling toungue-in-cheek.
If it’s any consolation, Wes is a bit of a font-biter himself. Stanley Kubrick is the Futura-Film originator.
Ah, yes, Futura –I used it a lot in designing work at CBS television in those goofy 60′s days. My tastes leaned toward Fut Bold & Extra Bold Cond. Which were perfect for movie ads and news programing–so it seemed then. It won a lot of type and art directors awards for us in any case.
These days I’m more into goofy types such as the main title corny gravestones in the New DVD print of “Ed Wood ” which I watched last night.
If you all want a pre- Halloween treat –see more of these madcape type and ghoul faces on the website—monsterstv.com. A riot, at least to these eyes.
We have recently gotten this channel on our HDTV and all of this stations graphics are extremely witty and with it for the retro horror movies they show all “day and all nightmare”as they say.
These days I’m more into goofy types such as the main title corny gravestones in the New DVD print of “Ed Wood ” which I watched last night.
If you all want a pre- Halloween treat –see more of these madcape type and ghoul faces on the website—monsterstv.com. A riot, at least to these eyes.
We have recently gotten this channel on our HDTV and all of this stations graphics are extremely witty and with it for the retro horror movies they show all “day and all nightmare”as they say.
[...] have called Futura “theirs” (including Volkswagen, Absolut Vodka… even filmmaker Wes Anderson calls Futura his), there was something particulary fitting about Ikea and [...]
Does anyone know what version of Futura Anderson uses for the main titles of his movies. it is often used on the posters like this one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lifeaquaticposter.jpg
what is it Futura called when it is “hollowed-out” like that?
thanks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lifeaquaticposter.jpg
what is it Futura called when it is “hollowed-out” like that?
thanks
I’m not sure of the specific in-line version, but the weight used is Futura Book.
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