An Avatar + Papyrus Hootnanny

So way back in August, I wrote this when the trailer was released. Of course now, the movie is out and a lot of people are going bananas over the use of Papyrus, the font recommended by 4 out of 5 people who don't know a damn thing about design or typography.

Gizmodo had this. In that, they share some of the twitter buzz and reveal that the subtitles are all in Papyrus as well.

Some great things to come out of the original post's comments however were this mockup of a French Avatar poster using Comic Sans (might as well right?):



Even better, from the comments, Tim Girvin, a man who had worked with James Cameron wrote:

...I’d heard about Avatar and seen some of the opening treatments of the concept of its visual identity. Early renderings and pre-marketing show reels expressed this in a font that to my thinking failed to appropriately reach to the innovation potential of his visioning. I wrote him — a series of letters — with ideas and pleas for involvement.

Girvin's post is lengthy and very interesting so I encourage you to read the whole thing.

I've reached out to Chris Costello, who I've interviewed in the past, to find out whether he knew anything about Papyrus being the defining typeface of one of the biggest blockbusters of the decade.

For now, it's still all the RAGE on twitter.

Papyrus overload

Rob is on the job! He sent in some new stuff.

hey!

I've noticed the overuse of papyrus for probably over 2 years, about a year ago i started vocalizing about it.

so anyways, we had a Halloween party this year and I made the banner with our favorite font! completely forgot about it, as a joke. and as expected, no one really understood the joke. it fit right in!

He goes on:

the wolf run one is from the tropicana resort in atlantic city, i was there this weekend and saw this very high production value papyrus sighting

also, i started my own blog http://latfpapyrus.blogspot.com , because the shots in my cellphone were starting to stack up.

2 minutes after creating the blog, my friend pointed me to your blog and I realized you had already done a lot of work! so as long asyou don't mind me bothering you with submissions, I'll keep sending them your way!

thanks!
- Rob

I don't mind at all and the fact you felt compelled to explore the overuse of Papyrus as well is a testament to how bad/fantastic this epidemic truly is. The news is all over the economy, swineflu, the gays, etc, but do they ever once alert us to the dangers of Papyrus abuse?!

It's a conspiracy dammit.

Rhythm & Jews

seriously...

This was sent in by Rob who concurs, "religion loves papyrus!"



Thanks for sending, Rob. I love the "It's a MITZVAH... at a BAR". Very clever, Papyrus lovers.

The Canadian Humane Society ♥'s puppies and kitties and Papyrus

This one comes from Chaz:



So the design there is actually not bad... but but it was clearly incomplete before they slapped that Pap on it.

Thanks for sharing!

religion Papyrus from here to eternity

At this point, it's pretty clear that religion is looking to corner the Papyrus market. I'm cool with that. Today, a guy here in the office said that I look like Jesus, which I guess isn't that bad since Jesus always looked pretty ripped (emaciated). I told this guy, who is a black guy, Jesus was black. He agreed saying, "the version you always see though." So I look like the white version of black Jesus. Anyway, in searching for reference for that claim, I found this site:



And to get an idea as to what that comparison shows:



Just putting that together felt sacrilegious.

Zulu Sport ♥s Papyrus

I was like, totally shopping one day and forrill grrrl, I like, totally saw this sign.



I was shopping. For a hat. They guy who was running the booth thought I really liked the bracelets until I explained I was taking a picture of the font. At that point, I think he was thinking about calling the police. He probably concluded that anyone lame enough to snap pictures of fonts is dangerous only if dangerous means lame and faggoty.