The truth behind the Avatar logo... Who chose the font, why it was used and the controversy around it.
The person responsible for choosing the font for the movie Avatar is Peter Stougaard and in my eyes, Peter owes me money for the therapy I needed to get over this.
The former 20th Century Fox Senior Vice President of Creative Advertising (and graphic designer and illustrator) readily takes credit for choosing and modifying the movie’s heavily vilified font, and insists… “I didn’t aimlessly pick Papyrus, I chose it very strategically.”
Design studio, BLT Communications had been tasked with the project of developing and designing the promotional look and feel for the production and had created all BUT the movie's logo. The studio had already submitted almost 90 logos (*O. M. G*) but had failed to produce one that reflected the organic, indigenous nature of the film. Stougaard noted that the submitted logos “were all chrome and futuristic and it just was not right.”
What a disappointing result for a studio responsible for creating the lenticular poster for the movie so it would give off three-dimensional vibes, mimicking the movie’s 3D technology!
Running out of time to produce a logo outcome, Stougaard and Fox marketing chief Tony Sella bumped into James Cameron in the studio halls… Cameron just happened to be carrying his script for the movie and Stougaard noticed “On that cover page (of the script) was a title treatment for Avatar in Papyrus!”
Stougaard then took to his own office and worked on tweaking the font for use as the films logo and James Cameron accepted it with open arms…
Throughout the next several months, Cameron expanded the use of the font, putting it at the end of the first teaser trailer and then later, the end title sequence. Eventually, Sean Wehrli of Pic Collective created a custom-made design similar to Papyrus. It appears this was in attempt to steer the franchise away from using the font straight-out-the-box.
“There was definitely back-and-forth with us where we didn’t want it to be Papyrus and they kept pushing us to make it Papyrus,” Wehrli says. The Pic Collective co-founder, Pamela Green attests: “What kind of design studio would we be if we did Papyrus? But if a director likes something, what are you going to do?”
Ooooooof. That’s a YIKES from me!
Cameron at the time had been carrying around his script for the past 5 years that had the title in Papyrus on the front... I'm guessing it was burned into Cameron's subconscious and there was simply no way around its inevitable use. Props to all involved for trying though!
In an interview with Empire Magazine in December 2022, James Cameron is quoted saying “Just think of how much we could have grossed if it wasn’t for that damn font! I was not aware that our font was an off-the-shelf thing; I assumed the art department or the title company came up with it. Of course, it was trolled mercilessly as a lazy choice, but frankly, I like the font.”
The admission that he wasn’t aware that it was an off-the-shelf font is remarkably odd considering the pervasive use of the font by the mid-2000's - well before the movie was released. Papyrus was *everywhere*... From billboards to noticeboards, business signs and cards to logos and menus, from high-end boutiques to knock-off merch. I was a designer during this point in time. I cannot over-state the annoyingly prevalent use of this font!
The typographer who created Papyrus in 1982, Chris Costello went to see the original Avatar movie and instantly noticed the use of his font and the changes that had been made to it. “The ‘A’ was a little different and they made a couple small changes,” he said. “I know what I did because I labored over each character.”
He also noticed the movie’s subtitles—used to translate the Na’vi language—was straight-out-of-the-box Papyrus. “I thought it seemed like it worked, but others went really deep into the evils of not going the custom route,” Costello says. “It was at a time when Papyrus was overused. It got to the saturation point.”
It is worth noting that Chris Costello actually received death threats about the use of the font. Yup. Bonkers!
The conversation around the use of the font almost took over the conversation about the incredible production itself with Gizmodo mocking the font choice in an article titled, “I Spent $300 Million on This Movie and All I Got Were These Lousy Papyrus Subtitles.” Countless blog articles were written ridiculing the choice and a website was launched, though since abandoned, dedicated to documenting the widespread overuse of the font!
There was even a short investigative story written by David Kadavy called "In Defense of Papyrus: Avatar Uses the World’s Second-Most-Hated Font to Signal the Downfall of Civilization."
Years after Avatar's release, even Ryan Gosling still can't get over it.
The only font more widely disliked by humanity than papyrus, is Comic Sans.
With the 2023 release of the Avatar sequel, Avatar. The Way Of Water, it appears the conversation around Papyrus has begun all over again.
Case in point, me dedicating more than 800 words to this discussion!
In an empathetic move for all of us working through this decade of trauma over Papyrus, the new logo has been tweaked and edited - you could almost squint your eyes and not see Papyrus anymore. But you’re not fooling us, Mr Cameron!
