Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Florida in use for the titles of Det sjunde inseglet, or The Seventh Seal from 1957, written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, starring Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, and Nils Poppe.

Christian Annyas of the Movie Title Stills Collection created a page dedicated to the title sequences of Ingmar Bergman’s films, because he was interested in finding out how often Florida was used for films by the Swedish director.

Between 1957 and 1968 Bergman directed twelve feature films. Ten have a title sequence featuring [Florida], the first being Det sjunde inseglet / The Seventh Seal (1957), the last Vargtimmen / Hour of the Wolf (1968).

The Persona (1966) title sequence [see also the post on Fonts In Use] is the only with black text on a white background, all others white on a black background.

In the screenshots shown in this post, the titles are oddly off-center. Note that the images shown by Christian, sourced from Criterion Collection’s blu-ray edition (2018), show centered titles. Also, the title there reads “Det sjunde inseglet”, with the article.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.youtube.com License: All Rights Reserved.

From London-based design studio Barnbrook:

Studio members Jonathan Barnbrook and Anıl Aykan formed the band Fragile Self releasing their debut self-titled album in 2019 on vinyl, CD, and a 500-page book. One of the project’s main focus is to explore the almost mystical relationship between music and graphics. The CD version of the album has a unique package which features 3 postcards, a booklet of original photography and a unique package which folds out to be a poster or stands up on its own. A uniquely creative work.

The duo published their debut project in various forms, each with a custom design and cover, made to fit the format. The album was released through a record company created for this release: “The Deperson Society”. In all formats, the artwork combines custom portraits of Jonathan and Anil, imaginatively combined with found photographs and reproductions of twentieth-century artworks, printed in dim yet atmospheric shades of gray.

All typography uses a custom digitization of Florida named Fragile as the main typeface in all case, as the only typeface in some cases. The use of Florida (designed by Hans Möhring in ca. 1931) seems to be a reference to the movies of Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman, a “hallmark for the existential/philosophical relationship drama”, who used Florida for the opening titles of his movie Persona (1966).

See also a post from 2017 about the artwork preceding the album release.

[More info on Discogs]

Designer Anıl Aykan is one of the speakers about Alphabet Revolution, Typographic Revolution: The Process of Designing a Typeface for a Specific Language at Typographics 2021. Fonts In Use is proud to be a media partner of the conference. See more work by speakers of the 2021 edition.

Fragile Self is an electronic minimal duo formed by Anıl Aykan and Jonathan Barnbrook. Their first album has been announced for autumn 2017.

It takes as a starting point the subject of classic psychotherapy. This includes songs on the enigmatic patient of Breuer and Freud Bertha Pappenheim, how it is to be in love with a narcissist and the theories of Fritz Perls, inventor of Gestalt therapy. Despite the heavy subject matter they have created a series of listenable, witty electronic compositions.

One track, “Deperson”, is already online at fragileself.com. The teaser graphics posted to social media sites combine black-and-white details of found images from various sources (e.g. Vanitas Still Life by Herman Henstenburgh, Narcissus by Caravaggio, or a creepy sleep-inducing mask from the 1920s) with reversed caps from an exclusive typeface by Barnbrook/VirusFonts, namely

a special redrawing of Florida, a font used in the titles of many Ingmar Bergman films

— including Persona (1966). Florida was originally designed by Hans Möhring (1894–1958) and first cast by the Woellmer foundry in Berlin in the early 1930s. I’m especially fond of its lunar (lunatic?) ‘O’. José A. Álvarez has recently made a digitization of this early stressed geometric sans serif, too. His version is not available yet.

The typeface used for the opening titles of Ingmar Bergman’s Persona is Florida, an early contrasted sans-serif drawn by Hans Möhring and first cast in c. 1931 by Woellmer, predating Cassandre’s Peignot by a couple of years.

(via Riccardo Sartori)