Vratislav Hlavatý movie posters (1974–1981)
Společník (A Loser, original title: Un cave), France, 1972. Directed by Gilles Grangier. Featuring Claude Brasseur, Marthe Keller, André Weber.
Czech illustrator and designer Vratislav Hlavatý (b. 1934) was an avid user of Marvin. In the 1970s and 1980s, he used it for quite a number of movie posters. This collective post shows seven of them.
No matter whether it’s about a French crime movie, a biography of jazz singer Billie Holiday, or a Polish cartoon – Marvin always seemed like a good choice. Designed by Mick Chave as film typeface for Face Photosetting, the geometric all-caps sans serif was also available as rub-down type by Letraset and Mecanorma. Hlavatý preferably uses it in reverse, i.e. white against a dark background. Sometimes the use is indirect: For Společník (shown above), the poster designer apparently drew Marvin’s letterforms by hand, adding a “lazy S” and a K with a less modest leg.
Central European diacritics typically weren’t included on press type sheets manufactured in the West, so the local designers had to invent those themselves. For many designers in the ČSSR or Hungary, the favored form for display type was plain fine lines. This is true for Hlavatý’s use of Marvin, too.
See more of Hlavatý’s work (or buy vintage copies of his posters) on jozefSquare.
Billie zpívá blues (original title: Lady Sings the Blues), USA, 1972. Directed by Sidney J. Furie. Featuring Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor.
Bouře na souši (“Storm on the Land”, original title: Shtorm na sushe / Шторм на суше), Soviet Union, 1976. Directed by Eduard Bocharov. Featuring Sasha Makartsev, Aleksandr Silin, Ilya Yermolayev.
The smaller lines are set in Maršův Grotesk, a sans serif in the vein of Gill Sans, designed by Stanislav Maršo for the Czechoslovak foundry Grafotechna in 1960. Steve Matteson’s Miramonte is a digital interpretation.
Herodotovo tajemství (“The Mystery of Herodotus”, original title: Misterul lui Herodot), Romania, 1976. Directed by Geta Doina Tarnavschi. Featuring Christian Orascu, Tudor Petrut, Alexandru Danila.
Marvin set on a curve. The secondary typeface is Egizio Italic.
Velké putováné Bolka a Lolka (Around the World with Bolek and Lolek, original title: Wielka podróż Bolka i Lolka), Poland, 1977. Directed by Władysław Nehrebecki. Featuring Ewa Zlotowska, Danuta Mancewicz, Jan Kociniak.
Oči jako hvězdy (“Eyes like the Stars”, original title: A csillagszemű), Hungary, 1978. Directed by Miklós Markos. Featuring Juraj Ďurdiak, József Madaras, Irén Bordán.
Nějaká jiná žena (“The Other Woman”, original title: Neka druga žena) Yugoslavia, 1981. Directed by Miomir Stamenković. Featuring Merima Isaković, Dragan Nikolić, Ljubiša Samardžić.
