News /

November 06, 2017

ScreenFonts: Halloween 2017 | The Leftovers

These posters didn’t make the cut, but are still noteworthy for their design and/or typography.

by Bald Condensed

Poster for Machines — Machines © 2016 Pallas Film. Marcel Weisheit made a big impression on me with his work for It’s Not Yet Dark, and reaffirms his talent with these two posters for the documentary Machines.

Poster for Sur Quel Pied Danser? — Sur quel pied danser? (Footnotes) © 2016 Longride. This refreshingly cute French poster seems to come straight out of a graphic novel. Underware’s bodacious Bello Caps, a stylized interpretation of casual sans-serif all-cap faces, would have worked equally well here.

Poster for Footnotes — Matt Frost’s design references the art for the classic musicals from the forties and fifties, with their typical hand-painted letters. The aforementioned Bello also has a style that matches the film’s second poster: Bello Script.

Poster for Endless Poetry — Poesía sin fin (Endless Poetry) © 2016 Satori Films. In this poster influenced by the psychedelic illustration styles of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Andrew Bannister perfectly captures Alejandro Jodorowsky’s singular artistic vision. Amira is an elegant alternative to Linotype’s stressed sans serif Brewery; Roxy offers a space-saving solution.

Poster for Brigsby Bear — Brigsby Bear © 2017 Sony Pictures Classics. An endearing throwback to the earliest days of cinema. The tight-but-not touching Palatino feels like an anachronism; Font Bureau’s Meyer Two offers more flavor from Hollywood’s heyday.

Poster for The Fencer — Miekkailija (The Fencer) © 2015 The California Film Institute. The three fencers form a stately, well-balanced triangle, making This Time Tomorrow’s key art look almost regal. The color palette is refined, and the two-tone wall in the background cleverly frames the title.

Poster for The Pulitzer at 100 — The Pulitzer at 100 © 2016 First Run Features. Garamond FB appears up top, and the title is set in a peculiar split-weight typewriter face.

Poster for The Chinese Lives of Uli Sigg — The Chinese Lives of Uli Sigg © 2016 Icarus Films. The radical color palette and beautifully deconstructed typesetting are in tune with the movie’s subject: the Swiss diplomat Uli Sigg, who made his mark on Chinese contemporary art. Navigo would have looked fabulous here, and would have added a little edge.

Poster for The Only Living Boy in New York — The Only Living Boy in New York © 2017 Roadside Attractions. Leroy & Rose emphasize their great use of white space by right-aligning ITC Avant Garde Gothic against the left edge of the photograph. Monokrom’s Vinter would have given this poster a welcome refinement and elegance, on a par with the design. Take a look at Newlyn’s New Hero, Font Bureau’s Eagle and Nobel, and CJ Dunn’s Dunbar for similar geometric letterforms.

Poster for The Dark Tower — The Dark Tower © 2017 Universal Pictures. Jae Lee (who was also the primary artist for the first arcs of the comic book adaptations) provided the haunting, sinuous art for the illustrated character posters.

Poster for Some Freaks — Some Freaks © 2016 Roadside Attractions. Key art by the mysterious xhxix, whom the filmmakers never met, and have only communicated with via email.

Bald Condensed, né Yves Peters, is a Belgian-based rock drummer known for his astute observations on the impact of letterforms in the contemporary culture-sphere. A prolific writer on typography, he has a singular knack for identifying the most obscure typefaces known to humankind.