Typography and the World of the Royal Tenenbaums
Over the holiday break, I spent most of my free time in my basement workshop, learning to use my new planer, and raiding my DVD library. (I hardly buy them anymore, but have a hefty collection from my days of working of the video store in college). One afternoon, I put in The Royal Tenenbaums, and saw something I’d never spied before: the abundance of the typeface Futura. It’s on the poster, sure, and in the credits, but there it was on the school bus:
And at the hospital:
So, I did what any type geek on vacation might do, I google it. And I found this amazing 2004 article by Mark Simonson.
“The type isn’t anachronistic so much as idiosyncratic. Director Wes Anderson seems to have a thing, bordering on obsession, for Futura. The credits are set in Futura Bold—nothing strange about that. But it doesn’t stop there. The Tenenbaums seem to exist in a world dominated by Futura (mainly Futura Bold)”
Chris
