Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo, National Theatre

Poster for Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo as performed by the National Theatre under the direction of John Dexter. According to the National Theatre Archive, this production premiered in August 1980. (The record in V&A’s Theatre and Performance Collection dates it to August 1986.)

Designer Richard Bird used the Earthrise photograph which was taken by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. It depicts the Blue Planet as seen from the Moon, and also graced the covers of the Whole Earth Catalog. This iconic visualization was the final nail in the coffin of the geocentric model that Galileo Galilei started to challenge in the early 1600s.

For the title, Bird chose Navy Cut, an all-caps stencil typeface with rounded corners. Navy Cut was designed by Albert Boton for Hollenstein in 1971, and was also carried by Letraset competitor Mecanorma. It was digitized in 2005 by Patrick Griffin as Quanta East.

The poster was printed by J&P Atchison. Copies of the poster are available from the National Theatre shop.

Via V&A’s Theatre and Performance Collection.

Posted as part of a series that pays tribute to Albert Boton, one of the preeminent French type designers of the past sixty years. Albert Boton died on July 20, 2023, at the age of 91.