The Font Adventures of Indiana Jones
In the 80s, my typing-teacher mom would come home from work with batches of failed typing exams, which I would promptly turn into secret agent spy notes or abstract art for my action figures. In my undergrad days at The University of the Arts, I was slightly obsessed with the Russian artist Ivan Puni and did a series of paintings featuring Cyrillic script (see cover art for this Spotify playlist). Post-college, I made an experimental film about letters as objets d’art called CHARACTER (2002). This recurring letter obsession led me to excavate some truths about the fonts circling our favorite archeologist. Did I say “truths?” I meant ‘facts’ – see Dr. Tyree down the hall for truths. Anyway, alongside me for the journey was graphic designer Amanda Krenos, who taught me terms like typeface (name of the letter design), font (typeface in a certain size), and serifs (the handles on certain typefaces; no handles = sans serif). Here’s what our research dug up…
 |
| The logo is available on Logopedia |
Designed by American brand artist Mike Salisbury and colored by Willardson White, the legendary Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) logo features the now-famous diminishing Raiders arc in what has become known as the Safari font. Nestled underneath “Raiders” is the rest of the title, “of the Lost Ark”, in the clean Eurostile stylings. Eurostile is a sans-serif typeface brought into reality circa 1962 by Italian type foundry Nebiolo. Called the “Porsche of Letterforms,” Eurostile echoes efficiency and functionality. Like Indy, it doesn’t believe in frivolity. This logo became the template for all Indiana Jones movie posters and physical media covers, including the repackaged Young Indy TV episodes-turned-movies. Eurostile was also in the opening titles of Raiders, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).
 |
| Open Kapitalen as seen in the titles of Last Crusade (1989). |
Open Kapitalen is used in the opening title of every Indy movie but Temple. No doubt Spielberg was too distracted trying to sandwich Kate Capshaw into Temple’s opening titles to include Open Kapitalen. This set of open caps – or hollow capital letters – was designed in 1929 by Jan van Krimpen for Enschedé, a Dutch printing plant and type foundry that operated from 1743 to 1990. The typeface exudes Latin and Greek vibes, making it perfect for an academic man obsessed with objects from the past.
“The Young Indiana Jones” portion of the TV logo (1992) is similar to the Lucasfilm Ltd. logo of the late 80s/early 90s. That brassy serif font is thick and bold for the company logo, but it appears stretched and thin here for Young Indy. My best guess is this is a custom font from Lucasfilm – designed to straddle the look of the Lucas-loved Victorian era and early modern typefaces. “Chronicles”, however, is in Algerian font, developed in the early 20th century by British type foundry Stephenson, Blake and Company. It would later be updated for “current-day” use by Alan Meeks, right before Raiders came out. In the 1990s, this pushed against the grain of current design, and I loved every bit of it.
 |
| Pretty sure I scanned my copy of this issue. I have the whole collection. |
Some say the comic title is a far-flung Art Deco font or Benton Sans Extra Comp Black. As a kid, I said, “Why is The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones (1983) not like the Raiders logo?!” Yes, I would say the whole title. Every time. Oh, and yes, I love this logo now. But as a kid? Yuck. Who came up with this lettering? Some resources credit cover artist Terry Austin. Google AI credits John Byrne. But according to several comic book aficionados, Joe Rosen, the Indy comic's first letterer, probably came up with the logo design. I did reach out to Marvel for their input and never heard back. All I know is that this is a distressed serif font that implies movement, adventure, and times long gone.
 |
| Scanned from a merch tag I saved. Oh, how I love this tag! |
I saved the oddest for last: merch tags circa late 90s/early 00s. Amanda and I went back and forth on this typeface. Our research narrowed “Indiana Jones” to two fonts: Phosphate Inline or Kabel. Phosphate Inline, a font based on the 1920s art deco style typeface Phosphor, is commonly used in historic national park artwork. However, my graphic design comrade and I concluded this typeface is based on Kabel, a geometric sans serif style designed by Rudolph Koch in 1927. Kabel is, most likely, inspired by Edward Johnston’s “Underground” lettering used in London tube transportation and museum posters circa 1916. So, while the plane and background scream Casablanca (1942), the Kabel-like font belongs in a museum, literally, yet also carries a history of speedy underground travel (mine cars, anyone?).
And, for now, that’s a wrap on our font adventures. Thanks again to Amanda Krenos for her help with my research. The variance in Indy logos always rattled around in my noggin, so I'm glad I finally wrote about it.
Here’s an old pic of my kids with me in my long-lost Indiana Jones baseball cap….and our hero’s name is in a font we have yet to cover. Oh well, Indy’s the man no matter what typeface his name appears in. Word.
This article is dedicated to Mary Mich & Luke Reimer.
Mary and Luke: Please say “Hi” to St. Longinus for me.
Comments
Post a Comment