Posterwire.com is a movie poster weblog. From images of the latest Hollywood one-sheets to vintage movie posters, this film poster weblog hopes to offer a bit of insight into film key art.
There’s a common saying among movie poster designers and art directors when designing film title logos: “When in doubt, use Trajan.”
And why such a mantra? “Clients love it. They love it’s elegant look and always gravitate towards it or similar style typefaces.”
A better illustration of the use of the Trajan typeface in movie posters can be found in the excellent short film available from the stock agency Veer: “Etched in Stone” by Cheshire Dave.
Trajan was created by font designer Carol Twombly in 1989. As mentioned in the Veer “Etched in Stone” short film, the type is based on the classic etched style of ancient Roman era serif lettering. As a display typeface, it’s influence is wide reaching in the world of one-sheet logotypes — even film logos that aren’t technically using Trajan are using similar looking fonts or typefaces derived from the Trajan lineage.
Speaking of type, if you need help in identifying the likes of Trajan (or any other typefaces used in movie posters and elsewhere), look no further than the Type Identification forum over at the great site Typophile.com. You can also try IDing a font by uploading an image sample to WhatTheFont.
Cheshire tells me the GLADIATOR logo isn’t using Trajan. (I guess it will count as one of the many “similar” faces used.) My disdain for IDing or writing intelligently about typography is well known. :( Anyone care to comment further on the face being used?
Comment posted by admin on 07/17/05 5:18 PM.I believe that the Gladiator logo is based on Monotype’s Castellar face. Castellar is an engraved or inline design and those details have been removed. The finer details in the serifs and stroke connections have also been obscured by the texture applied over the logo. Here’s a visual comparison for reference:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/splorp/26852439/
Comment posted by Grant Hutchinson on 07/18/05 8:15 AM.Indeed Gladiator is not Trajan — but it’s quite similar. As much as I do think Trajan is beautiful, it’s quickly becoming so overdone as to be annoying. I’d suggest avoiding it whenever possible, just because of that.
Comment posted by Jeff Croft on 07/18/05 8:31 AM.Thanks for the info complete with “show your work” images — always appreciated.
Maybe we should have called The Cimarron Group and asked what typeface they used in the Gladiator poster. I’m glad I included those two “type ID” links in this post because clearly they are needed to cover the mistakes on this weblog when writing about typography. ;)
Comment posted by admin on 07/18/05 8:35 AM.yes, neither of the fonts used in the 2 examples this article are Trajan!! yikes
Comment posted by Pulse on 05/23/06 12:01 PM.Yes, I believe this is covered in the comments section. ;)
Comment posted by admin on 05/23/06 12:26 PM.Fer chrissake, they’ve even used a variant of this font on “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”! Follow the herd…
Comment posted by Joe on 05/31/06 2:59 PM.