Category: General

Pentagram’s Design for Fantastic Mr. Fox is Wrong

The Making of Fantastic Mr. Fox: A Film by Wes Anderson Based on the Book by Roald Dahl
The design team at Pentagram just announced the release of The Making of Fantastic Mr. Fox: A Film by Wes Anderson Based on the Book by Roald Dahl (amazon payola link). This companion book goes behind the scenes of Anderson’s new stop-motion movie opening soon. A movie which I am excited to see – watch Fantastic Mr. Fox trailers, and agree with me.

I hate to say this, but Pentagram screwed up.

Royal Tenenbaum's World of Futura
Wes Anderson tends to use similar themes, actors and cinematography throughout his body of work, creating a distinct visual style. To the point, Anderson like Stanley Kubrick, only uses the Futura type family in his movies.
For me, the genius of using Futura is that the typeface is a bit of a cypher; depending on how you use it, say when you need to typeset a sign, you can evoke either a vaguely old or futuristic feeling. This is especially useful in a film setting when you can add physical context around that sign, to reinforce that feeling. The opening title in Star Wars, the famous A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… does the same thing. It sets the scene.

Anderson uses Futura in the same manner, with most of his movies set vaguely in the past – or at least an alternative present.
So to see another typeface on a work which has Wes Anderson’s byline on it is shocking. And jarring.

Pentagram should have, and must have, known this. So why the odd decision to typeset the cover in, what looks to be, Baskerville? A typeface developed in the 18th century? Let’s give the benefit of a doubt and say that they knew Anderson’s use of Futura, but were forced by some other reason to use a serif typeface.

Later
Some have wrote in that the choice of type was to try to replicate the original Roald Dahl typography. I thought about the Roald Dahl angle, but from Pentagram’s and Amazon’s write-up, it is clear that this book illustrates Wes Anderson’s vision of the movie, complete with “making of” images, footage stills, etc.

29 Nov 09 Update
Pentagram’s blog (which is quite nice btw) has The Making of Fantastic Mr. Fox update full of nice photos and this gem:

Wes Anderson was closely involved in the book design. He provided Hyland with his starting point, the book Truffaut by Truffaut, and worked in conjunction with the Pentagram team, approving overall structure, layouts and use of font.

Interesting that Anderson approved the typography according to Pentagram.

Chicago Tunnel Company Strikes Again

Chicago Freight Subway c1910
For the second time in as many decades, illegal underground tunnels have wrecked havoc on the city of Chicago. This week a large section of the Kennedy Expressway, the major urban highway in Chicago, buckled and failed, closing all but one lane of the four lane highway. The preliminary cause has been traced to century-old abandoned railroad tunnels created, illegally, by Chicago Tunnel Company. A contractor was busy pumping the tunnel full of concrete, in order to limit the chance of a repeat of the 1992 Chicago Flood. The concrete pumping was overzealous, as the pressure of the concrete (concrete expands as it sets) buckled the soil above it which caused the Kennedy Sinkhole of 2009.
Chicago Tunnel Company Map
These tunnels have a history of overzealousness which trace back to their construction. The tunnels were officially built to house only telephone cables, but the tunnel company built the tunnels with six feet wide by seven and one-half high – big enough to fit a shrunken train set. In went the telephone lines and the train, and out went coal, soot and ash. After just a dozen years later, the company went out of business and the tunnels became dormant. In 1992 they were punctured by a pile which sent millions of gallons of Chicago RIver water into the basements of buildings in the Loop, thus the 1992 Chicago Flood.

Health Care: A Bargin

The CBO scored the 3-committee House health care plan: $1 trillion over the next decade for 97 percent coverage of legal residents.
This is a bargain.
Only costing $100 billion every year to cover every legal American citizen is truly a bargain. No more wondering if this hospital covers my insurance – under this plan, every hospital will accept USA Insurance. No more wondering if my new insurance plan allows me to use my current doctor – under this plan, you get to keep your doctor.
Where do we get the money to pay for this? Through our premiums and restoring the upper tax brackets for those making over $300,000 so they can pay their fair share.
Health Costs