Reagan Ray

I've wanted to do an Academy Award-themed post for years. Initially, I thought about ranking the best picture winners but didn't think it would get much traction (there are many similar lists out there). So with the awards rapidly approaching, I decided to investigate what kind of lettering was out there.

As usual, the early years did not disappoint. There's a lot of hand lettering, and I love how all the earlier movies had quotation marks around the title. I almost quit going after the 80s, but I got a kick out of the trends that started to develop. In the 90s, everyone loved their chunky, condensed fonts. The gritty texture starts to show up around Crash, and then there's the thin type on a colorful background (Moonlight, Green Book, etc.) of the late 2010s. The nominees for 2021 leaves a lot to be desired, type-wise, but the lipstick lettering on Promising Young Woman would be a solid addition.