So I went to see the new Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last week. It was enjoyable. Not Raiders of the Lost Ark enjoyable, but enjoyable.
The first thing I noticed in Crystal Skull was the vintage Paramount Pictures opening, which the first three Indiana Jones movies shared. It looked something like this:
I loved that they reverted back to this.
But as a designer, one of the things that bugged me about the movie was the opening scene with the credits and title. My first thought was, "Wow, those are weird titles." They looked odd and out of place.
I read others' gripes about the credits, and decided to dig around and compare the titles to those of the first three films.
Turns out, the typefaces used in Crystal Skull aren't new at all. They used the same faces in Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. I know one of the typefaces is Eurostile Extended, but the other white-outlined face eludes me, though I think it's safe to rule out Trajan, Garamond, and Goudy Oldstyle. [EDIT: I believe it might be Penumbra.]
Here are the opening title sequences and credits to Raiders of the Lost Ark:
This is the opening title sequence to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
Eurostile was used sparingly when displaying cast names such as Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies and River Phoenix:
...but was not far away when the secondary typeface was needed:
Looks like Eurostile Bold Extended was used, since it looked a little thicker than the Eurostile in Raiders.
So why did the titles in the Crystal Skull bug me (and others)? I don't know. Maybe it was because titles nowadays are crisper and sharper compared to the softer titles 80's film making produced. Maybe it's because my eyes are 19 years older and keener to these types of things. Whatever it was, I'm withdrawing any criticism about the faces. They didn't change – my awareness to type did.
By the way, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was the only film of the series to veer off dramatically in terms of its typography. Check out its opening credit typefaces:
I wouldn't be able to guess this was from an Indy movie. Looks more like Star Trek to me. And here's the movie title, where they opted to go with the Indiana Jones logotype from the posters:
Seeing the titles in a still frame like this makes it look cartoony, like an episode of Ducktales. Combined with the orange credits and the opening musical number, Temple of Doom was probably the strangest of the three. (er...four.)
All and all, I'm glad they went back to the original titles. If there has to be a lesson in all this, I guess it's that type is part of your brand. Don't mess with it – or your core elements – too much.
Phil | examplify.com
7 comments:
Now, I feel sheepish. I appreciate the throwback, but in my humble opinion, the typeface (similar to an older Harrison Ford) looks much better on the small screen. :)
Yah, the problem with using the same typefaces from the trilogy is that it looks a bit passé or out of place. Not that I fault whoever chose them. Who could have anticipated a fourth movie (quad-quel?) would be made 19 years later!
I kind of liked that same typeface in the new movie. It gave the same feeling of "something cool is about to happen" just like Last Crusade's opening, against that desert landscape and dust. But yeah, that's just the nostalgia talking, as it did through the entire movie.
Once I knew the typefaces were from the old film, I didn't mind either. At least it wasn't Temple of Doom style.
Here's another Indy article, this time about the fonts used on the maps in each of the four films – http://www.marksimonson.com/article/223/indiana-jones-and-the-fonts-on-the-maps
Good words.
I was just re-watching Temple of Doom tonight, and thought the font looked like Star Trek as well. But I compared it to the Next Generation opening, and I guess it's not after all.
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