An independent archive of typography.
Topics
Formats
Typefaces

Escape From New York movie titles

Contributed by Toshi Omagari on Oct 31st, 2017. Artwork published in
July 1981
.
The ‘J’ in JOHN is a titling form, which is now an alternate but originally the only form in the first release of Albertus (1936). Two years later, the lowercase was added as well as ‘J’ and ‘Q’ with descender, which have become the default.
AVCO Embassy Pictures. License: All Rights Reserved.

The ‘J’ in JOHN is a titling form, which is now an alternate but originally the only form in the first release of Albertus (1936). Two years later, the lowercase was added as well as ‘J’ and ‘Q’ with descender, which have become the default.

In John Carpenter’s films, the typeface choice in the opening sequence is quite consistent. Albertus seems to be his favourite, appearing more than any other typefaces in his filmography. Escape From New York seems to be the first and most playful of all.

Carpenter, or whoever was going to be his long-time credit typesetter colleague, knew there were some alternate capital letters, and made spontaneous use of them in Escape From New York.

According to the credits, the titles are done by the company called Pacific Title.

Notice the alternate M in the first line, while all other M’s are the standard one.
AVCO Embassy Pictures. License: All Rights Reserved.

Notice the alternate M in the first line, while all other M’s are the standard one.

Second appearance of his name uses the descending J.
AVCO Embassy Pictures. License: All Rights Reserved.

Second appearance of his name uses the descending J.

Escape From New York movie titles 4
License: All Rights Reserved.
During the film, this reverse stress lettering is prominent. It is unidentified at the time of writing.
AVCO Embassy Pictures. License: All Rights Reserved.

During the film, this reverse stress lettering is prominent. It is unidentified at the time of writing.

Escape From New York movie titles 6
AVCO Embassy Pictures. License: All Rights Reserved.
The film ends with Helvetica.
AVCO Embassy Pictures. License: All Rights Reserved.

The film ends with Helvetica.

Typefaces

  • Albertus
  • Helvetica
  • unidentified typeface

Formats

Topics

Designers/Agencies

Artwork location

Post a comment