How one typeface took over movie posters

Why Hollywood kept using Trajan.

For the past 25 years, one typeface has dominated Hollywood typography: Trajan. It’s everywhere, from Shakespearean epic classics like Titus to gory modern flicks like The Human Centipede. It was even the official typeface of the Academy Awards for a while. In movie poster design, if you want to make a film look official, you use Trajan. So how did that happen? Designer Yves Peters set out to answer that question.

[zhxv]

Trajan: "I'm everywhere! "

Helvetica: "A M A T E U R !!"

[luuketaylor]

At the end I'd begun to fall completely into the video and was longing for more... but it ended right at that moment! I could easily have watched half an hour on this.

[CuriosityCulture]

As much as I love Vox's politics and soccer videos.. I enjoy these videos so much better. (People are nicer in the comment section lol)

[shaunaaaah]

I really like these videos but they so often feel like the first paragraph of a great article. There's so much more there, why leave it at that?

[TheGentlemanWake]

I Like these vids generally speaking. They are well edited. Interesting. But I always get the sense that they just abruptly end. I never leave ultimately satisfied by them. There’s a turn in this one at the end where the expert mentions that there is still good design happening now. And I get that this piece is about the Trajan font but I wanted to see where modern typography is going. At least that’s what the flow of the video promised. Of the point was to eulogize Trajan as a font that had its heyday and now is relegated to wannabe b movie postres then this video essay needed to conclude a little stronger. Perhaps speculating as to what the future “Trajan” might be.

[Eoin-B]

My mother was a graphic designer in the 80s, then became a stay-at-home mother in the 90s and by the time she was ready to go back in the 2000s, her craft was totally obsolete. It's a little sad and I was also so amazed at what you can do with exacto knives, camera film, photocopiers & projectors.

She hated screens and refused to upskill and pivoted to commissioning wedding dresses in the end.

[kingkthewildone]

Yeesh vox is just so good I can't put it into words I subbed for music stuff but this is interesting

[carawestgate]

More Yves Peters!

I'd love to see a video with him showing us some good and bad examples of movie posters, or anything else really. I bet he has a lot of interesting things to show us!

[worf]

You could also analyze the flood of blue-and-orange colored movie posters.

[Rotisiv]

The Trajan typeface fits so much with supernatural horror movies.

[coryhrycuna]

I can't wait to go to a movie theater and look at all the movie posters and say "That movie is gonna suck. Just look at that font!"

[jokerchen]

Movie posters AND fonts??? Sign me up!

I really appreciate that the video addresses that just because fonts are computer-generated now they're not automatically worse, but I do wish that movies with the appropriate budget would opt for hand-drawn fonts and make movie posters more interesting. And not just the fonts. While I completely understand the usefulness of certain types of designs and what they communicate to potential audiences, I still wish that we saw more diverse and out-of-the-box poster designs.

[MartinKronstrom]

'Rogue One' is recent example using Trojan in a big blockbuster (non horror) movie.

[talinite]

Last time I was this early germany was still in the World Cup

[BallpenEater]

I didnt event notice that the video was already ending. Amazing and simplistic prod design, seamless editing, very intelligible narration, and the sound design is spot on. Vox, keep on keeping on.

[maritaurin]

woah, the opening of this video was crazy. I didnt even realize I subconsciously associated each of those fonts with a genre

[VARIOUShorses]

Ooh, this is right up my alley. I've long been fascinated by typefaces in film and film posters ever since reading an excellent blog post on the typfaces in Alien. I kind of wish this whole series was focused on fonts now...

[Amerikinz]

Cool interesting video. Fun fact: The poster for the musical “Hamilton” actually uses Trajan Pro as its font.

[TheReviewSpace]

I miss cool video game posters from back in the day, especially Nintendo Power. When game magazines used to be relevant in the 90s, some of them had free posters & it was exciting to discover a really cool one you'd be proud to tape up your bedroom wall. Unless it's a crappy one like Quest 64 or something.

[welpurp]

“This one’s gonna have Michael Cera” 😂