Vratislav Hlavatý movie posters (1974–1981)

Czech illustrator and designer Vratislav Hlavatý (b. 1934) was an avid user of Marvin. In the 1970s and 1980s, he used it for quite a number of movie posters. This collective post shows seven of them.

No matter whether it’s about a French crime movie, a biography of jazz singer Billie Holiday, or a Polish cartoon – Marvin always seemed like a good choice. Designed by Mick Chave as film typeface for Face Photosetting, the geometric all-caps sans serif was also available as rub-down type by Letraset and Mecanorma. Hlavatý preferably uses it in reverse, i.e. white against a dark background. Sometimes the use is indirect: For Společník (shown above), the poster designer apparently drew Marvin’s letterforms by hand, adding a “lazy S” and a K with a less modest leg.

Central European diacritics typically weren’t included on press type sheets manufactured in the West, so the local designers had to invent those themselves. For many designers in the ČSSR or Hungary, the favored form for display type was plain fine lines. This is true for Hlavatý’s use of Marvin, too.

See more of Hlavatý’s work (or buy vintage copies of his posters) on jozefSquare.