Posters from The Bookshop
Notice the posters to the right of the photo in this scene from The Bookshop.
A closer look at the posters from The Bookshop.
You might consider a career in graphic design if you pause a film to admire the posters in the background of a scene. I supposed I'm in the right field, then. The images above are screen-captured from the movie The Bookshop. The film takes place in a small English town during the 1950s. It's about a woman who wants to start a book shop despite the village's skepticism. There's a lot to unpack in the film about tribalism and power, but I digress.
I'm writing to celebrate the unsung graphic art within the film. I mean, look at those posters! It's someone's job (more likely a group of people) to study the aesthetics of period and create a realistic atmosphere through a simple object like an advertisement. How cool is that!?
For those of you not privy to type, we're looking at several varieties of typefaces and families within the posters pictured above:
The sign that says "no surrender" is set in an Egyptian font, otherwise known as slab serif. Based on a quick search of Adobe Fonts and a review of The Evolution of Type, Giza designed by David Berlow, appears to be a modern version of the slab used on the poster.
The bill that says "LAND TO LET" is set in a condensed sans serif. These days, the kids are using a typeface called Knockout design by Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones to get a similar effect.
The advertisement that says "A NON-STOP DRIVE…" is set in a thin version of Futura designed by Paul Renner.
There are more typefaces to dissect from the images (including a serif and what looks like a squeezed version of Helvetica or Akzidenz-Grotesk), but those are the easiest to point out and identify. See another? Please e-mail me and let me know. I'll add them to the list above.
Finally, I don't know who is directly responsible for the designs above, so I'll conclude with all of the names that I could pull from the end credits (with a little help from IMDb).
Credits (to the best of my knowledge):
Graphic Artist Michael Eaton, Maria Mallon (Maria Brady)
Graphic Designers Chema Sazatornil, Xavi Millán
Book Designers Victor Santacana, Helana Santacana, Helena Carazo
Brundish Calligraphy Didac Bono