Typo

Pablo Ferro’s best opening title is still Bullitt’s

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:08:51 -0800

There’s still no rhyme or reason on when Vox allows me to access my blog here. This morning, I got in a private post, but clicking ‘Create’ again, nothing happened for the next hour.
I wanted to share this opening title from Bullitt, after posting another one from Pablo Ferro on my Tumblr blog. This remains my favourite Ferro design. Though set in Chicago, only the skyline scene was shot there; the rest was in San Francisco.

Opening Titles For Bullitt

There’s something great about US design in 1968. From there, as someone mentioned to me, it went downhill.
I see ’68 as a positive year for a lot of design there, while ’69 began to look garish, particularly in fashion and hairstyles.

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Free promotion for the House Industries guys

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:42:04 -0800

Only an hour to get the compose screen loading on Vox today …
   I had another tab open and it took about 10 minutes.
   Nothing much to blog—I am just seeing if Vox has ﬁxed things. Turns out it hasn’t, though I am still wondering why on earth the three people who have been blocked to varying degrees are all oriental. A heck of a coincidence, but what are the odds?
   For your entertainment, a video that Tanya referred to me for all the font geeks out there:

Neutra Face : An Ode On A Typeface (A Bearded Poker Face Parody)

House Industries must be thrilled with the free promo.

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Where’s the I?

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:35:23 -0800

Time elapsed for compose window to appear: about ten seconds. Have they fixed it? (Last time I asked that, I jinxed it, and the next load took something like 16 hours.)
I was at Newtown Mall last week (not a regular shopping location for me) and noticed a pretty big typo. Where did the missing i in responsibility go?

Where’s the I

Oh, there it is, just down the steps:

Oh, there it is

Maybe they could take the extra I from here and glue it to the other one once they finish with the special. Though with the LT kerning in the top photograph, it’s going to be tricky fitting it in.

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It’s funny when the s*** comes back up your loo!

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:35:47 -0700

Important notice in Comic Sans

Gotta love these official notices typeset in Comic Sans. ‘S*** might come back up your toilet while we work on this, but it’s really fun! Yay!’

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New titles for remakes

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:17:57 -0700

Following on from an earlier post about opening titles, here’s a quick examination of how things change when shows are remade.
First up, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), with the original titles by Chambers & Partners and music by Edwin Astley:

Randall and Hopkirk Deceased

Some of the Chambers titles for ITC seemed to use a lot of solid colours and interesting shapes, with counters for imagery.
Fast forward to 2000, the show was remade with Reeves and Mortimer. Titles now by Tomato, the hot firm at the time, with music by David Arnold (Stargate, The Stepford Wives, and the recent Bond films). Head to 2.40 to skip the opening titles; one YouTube commenter recommends going to 4.11 to see Bob Mortimer as Adolf Hitler. (And Doctor Who fans, that is David Tennant guest-starring, with his normal Scottish accent.)

Randall and Hopkirk (deceased) episode 1 part 1

Still a lot of the primary colours, and still very trendy. It got me liking the Century Expanded typefaces all over again. Interestingly, I think both have dated quite well, and the modernist approach seems to have worked. But there’s not much that’s spooky about the later title, though I prefer it.
Let’s cross Stateside, for Fantasy Island in 1978:

Fantasy Island TV intro (1978)

Good but not great. Americana as the main typeface really says quite little, but the cheese factor is high.
Twenty years later, it was remade, and this is one of those times when I thought the later show, being much darker, was superior. Viewers disagreed. Malcolm McDowell starred as Mr Roarke this time out. Head to 1.41 to skip the pre-title sequence (with Lauren Holly as guest star). The principle of the plane heading there remains the same, but there is no sequence with Tattoo ringing a bell (it was, however, spoofed in the pilot with a scene featuring Louis Lombardi, and again in this episode with Edward Hibbert).

Fantasy Island 1998 1.12 1/6

Mission: Impossible is so iconic that remakes have not really changed the sequence:

Mission Impossible opening titles

The 1988 remake in Australia, which technically was a continuation, with Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) coming out of retirement after his protégé (played by Vince Martin) is killed:

Mission Impossible Title

And the 1996 film version, produced by Tom Cruise, with a big orchestra and, I assume, Danny Elfman conducting:

Mission Impossible (1996) Opening Titles

Slanting the Berthold City typeface was one down side to the Cruise film, but the orchestral arrangement gives the title a real urgency.
Not much of a lesson here—the above simply illustrate that remakes can either take the original and go on a nostalgia fest, adapt the original for modern audiences, or take a complete departure altogether. It seems to depend on how iconic the original was and how important the title was to the programme.
It will be interesting to see which tack The Prisoner takes.

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Grooving along to Department S

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:38:31 -0700

Chambers & Partners did a few opening titles to ITC shows and TV movies in the 1960s and 1970s. There was the original Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) (the remake employed Tomato, which also did a great job), but I really love this one for Department S. It shows what a difference design can make, and Chambers had a nice, modernist approach here. The Century Expanded Bold type suits the style of the series, and the titles have aged rather better than Peter Wyngarde’s hairstyle.

Département S

The spin-off, which had Wyngarde on his own in Jason King, felt cheaper, and the titles seem to have lost their sophistication. The Laurie Johnson theme tune was quite cool and was one of the few things that were better about the new series.

jason king

However, there are folks who are out there with their own ideas on how the Department S theme can be improved. Groovy!

DEPARTMENT S / JASON KING [ ROYAL MIX ] THEME

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Yangtze Restaurant respects ‘no MSG’

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:16:19 -0700

Six-digit phone numbers at the Yangtze

A smaller photo this time, since I know close-up stuff shot at night on a cell will look like crap.
   These are plastic chopsticks from the Yangtze Restaurant on Willis Street, which were obviously done many years ago: they feature a six-digit telephone number and a non-Linotype version of Helvetica Italic, which I enjoyed.
   I ate there Thursday night to celebrate my friend Nick’s 40th birthday, and want to give them one plug: this was the first time that I can remember, when eating at a Chinese restaurant that didn’t make ‘no MSG’ one of its claims, where the chef respected a customer’s request for the additive to be omitted from the meal. (There is a chain, whose name I forget, but it is something like Noodle Wok or Noodle Box, that has MSG-free as one of its claims; it is the exception and not the rule.)
   So often, MSG is still put in regardless of the customer’s request, which is dangerous: I have a friend who is so allergic to it that she carries around an adrenalin shot in her handbag. If she has MSG, she risks dying. When a customer says no, respect it.
   Just to put this bad stereotype at rest: MSG is not a must in Chinese cooking and I have not known a single Chinese person who uses it in a home-made meal. It is, however, used by second-rate chefs who can’t get the traditional flavours or the wok heating the way it should. And those folks don’t deserve the title of chef.
   So a major thanks to the Yangtze for understanding that ‘no MSG’ means just that—hopefully we can begin getting other Chinese joints doing the same. (And the meal was delish, thank you very much.)

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Probe

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:30:00 -0700

Here are some more neat finds on YouTube. I have only a vague recollection of this show, but I might be confusing with others that had fake computer messages going across the screen (The Invisible Man, The Gemini Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, etc.). Apparently, it was originally entitled Probe, but was retitled Search (possibly due to a conflict with another TV series). It didn’t last, due to a producer change and the idea of a revolving star each week (mixing between Hugh O’Brian, Doug McClure and Tony Franciosa). But the theme music and titles are great (note the use of the MICR typeface) and very early 1970s. They also hint at the optimism people had toward technology as a tool to aid mankind, in this case, an agency specializing in searches.

Probe title sequence 1972

Search TV Intro

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These fonts all look the same

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:17:03 -0700

Previewing open source fonts

Is it just me, or do these open source fonts all look the same? (One of those funny Firefox bugs, I believe.)

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Brought to you by the letter A

nobody@vox.com(Jack Yan) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:20:27 -0700

What are the odds I would follow two organizations whose Twitter avatar is a red A? Autocar magazine and the Alliance Party both decided to use the A in their logos (the latter having been contributed by me). Can you recognize the typefaces?

090707 Latest followers

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