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Now that the dust has settled from the release of the 5th movie and 7th book, I thought it would be nice to take a look at the typography featured in the most recent film. Design Observer already beat me to the punch, but it’s always nice to read another opinion, no? That and I’ve just been massively behind on blogging.

In previous Potter films, we’ve seen a certain style of old-world type and technology. The hand-written and medieval-style printing techniques seem to be the norm for magical school books and signage of the ancient castle. But in this film we see type and layout used to enhance the film and tell the story beyond setting the scene as “old”.

“Is anyone we know dead?”

In Order of the Phoenix, the wizarding world is engulfed in a sort of media war. Since Voldemort is still underground, most of the dramatics are surrounding slander and perceptions, rather than gunslinging, so to speak. So it is fitting the wizarding paper of record, The Daily Prophet, gains a life of it’s own, and really tells the story better than ever before. In the movie, we see dramatic pans and zooms into the paper itself, illustrating parts of the story that occur off-screen. With this being the longest of the Potter books, using headlines to drive the plot is a brilliant way to keep things moving during what is largely a cold war-esque film.

The paper itself features elegant lettering reminiscent of turn-of-the-century posters boasting the Paris World’s Fair, for examples. That late-victorian theme is carried through with clip art, animated and still, that remind us of those olde style carnivals and circuses we’ve come to know in the visual cliché of our age.

Similarly, these themes and type from the era are seen in the many proclamations that are issued during the course of the film. In the book, there were only 4 or 5 during the duration of the year, but they hammed it up for the big screen. Which was cool, because it gives us the chance to see more type.

What I love about these posters is not solely the early 1900s text and a certain sense of humour brought on by emphasising different parts of the copy, but also how they look vaguely mechanical. Magic, especially the saccharine polished kind dished by Dolores Jane Umbridge, has the potential to be ‘perfect’, yet these are imperfect, as if done on a primitive letterpress or mass produced to the point where the ink starts to wear unevenly the way they do on rubber stamps. It has a kind of wild west shabby-chic that makes it not only enjoyable, but ironic.

Finally, we see the use of type logos throughout the film. While I personally think they could have come up with something much more creative for the Ministry of Magic logo, the fact that they are consistent with the type-mark “M” is nice. Similarly, we see Fred and George Weasley and their fledgling brand of jokes and candies marked with a “W”. This kind of low-level branding never really gets old and once again fits ironically with the themes of the film. While the wizarding world may have solved problems of construction and transport, it seems they haven’t advanced in the realm of identity design.

So if you’re a type geek, check out the latest Harry Potter film and enjoy a treat.

Your opinions?

// a tale of cinema, design
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