Avatar is still by some measures the most successful movie in history, for all anyone remembers of it. You can refresh your memory with the sequel's trailer, which finally landed online today, as it's not obviously different from the original—if anything, it appears to focus even more on first film's "Kevin Costner in dreadlocks drops acid listening to Pure Moods" vibe. But one thing has changed: they've replaced the typeface famously used for the logo. Papyrus is gone.
Described as the second-most hated font in the world, Papyrus is more often found on inkjet-printed restaurant menus and Christian-school textbooks about bible times. What was it doing on one of Hollywood's most expensive and elaborate CG epics?
John Roshell designed the replacement: "Yep, I created the new Avatar font."
Like any self-respecting type designer, I've seen the SNL Papyrus skit, and I usually watch it again whenever someone sends me a link (which is pretty often). I do believe it's Ryan Gosling's finest performance. But unlike many type nerds, I think Papyrus is actually a pretty cool-looking font, and must admit that it wasn't a bad fit for the original AVATAR logo, despite also appearing on Shakira merch and off-brand tea.
