Thank God It’s Friday (1978)
Record cover of the original motion picture soundtrack. The film music is by Giorgio Moroder.
The typography of Thank God It’s Friday fittingly references the light effects of disco balls. The title typeface used on movie posters and the soundtrack album cover is Futura Dot, a tri-line dotted variant of Paul Renner’s iconic sans serif, drawn for Photo-Lettering, Inc. sometime before 1971. On the various international posters, it’s combined with different handwritten scripts. On the record cover, this role is assumed by Gillies Gothic.
Thank God It’s Friday is a 1978 American musical disco comedy film directed by Robert Klane and produced by Motown Productions and Casablanca FilmWorks for Columbia Pictures (whose torch-holding mascot, in a specially produced animation, dances to disco music before the opening credits). Produced at the height of the disco craze, the film features The Commodores performing “Too Hot ta Trot”, and Donna Summer performing “Last Dance”, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1978. The film features an early performance by Jeff Goldblum and the first major screen appearance by Debra Winger. — Wikipedia
US movie poster. The initials are enlarged and lowered.
UK quad movie poster. The initials here are rendered in solid Futura.
¡Por Fin, Ya Es Viernes! (“At last, it’s Friday!”) – the Spanish poster also uses Futura Dot. Small print in Univers.
Gracias A Dios… Es Viernes – the Argentinian poster uses a more direct translation of the title and does without handwriting.
Dieu Merci C’est Vendredi – for the French movie poster, Futura Dot was replaced with another dotted typeface: Mecanorma’s Chicago, designed by François Robert.
40th Anniversary Edition (2018) on Blu-ray Disc. The secondary typefaces are Pump and Goudy Heavy.
4 Comments on “Thank God It’s Friday (1978)”
Is there an established term for the enlarged and vertically centered initials? URW has a number of font families that include “DC” styles (for Display Caps, or Discaps), see e.g. their Futura.
I wonder what they used for making the Blu-ray Disc cover! Did they trace or redraw all those dots? Or did they find Harold Lohner’s digitization, Fortuna Dot?
Thanks again on fleshing this out, Florian! Whenever I see any Futura Dot used in modern times, I definitely think of Lohner’s version.
This is a fun derived one by the genius Erik Buckham!
[translated from the Spanish]
Hello,
I’m looking for the name of the designer of the cover of Thank God It’s Friday, does anyone have the information? Or where can I look for it? Thank you very much in advance, I’m a graphic designer and your contribution really caught my attention.
Once again, thank you!
Hi Marcos,
Heritage Auctions credits the artwork to Michael Kanarek and Terry Lamb. Chances are this doesn’t extend to the layout and typography.