One of several surprising things about the new Yorgos Lanthimos film, the font was designed by the late Joseph Churchward, whose work has shaped the look of New Zealand life for decades.
You can expect surprises going into any Yorgos Lanthimos film, but the Greek filmmaker’s latest comes with a New Zealand easter egg in its marketing campaign and title card: Churchward Roundsquare.
The clued-up and font-savvy will have identified the typeface immediately as the handiwork of the late font designer Joseph Churchward, who was born in Samoa but lived and worked in New Zealand for much of his adult life.
It’s the kind of film trivia that instils a particular patriotic pride – more so when you learn that the film’s graphic designer Vasilis Marmatakis found it via Te Papa, which put him in contact with Churchward’s daughter, who gave him the green light to digitise the font and use it. “It struck me as futuristic, but in a very analogue way, which is, in a sense, exactly what the film itself is,” Marmatakis told creative platform Its Nice That about the font choice. “It feels monumental yet sharp, even a little threatening.”
All of Churchward’s fonts were designed by hand (his business cards read “hand lettering is superior” and he rejected computers). He created 690 typefaces throughout his life, which took him from Samoa to Aotearoa, and back again several times. Among his many alphabets, which each took hundreds of hours, were designs named after his wife, Tua, and daughters.
The 2000s and 2010s saw a flurry of attention and recognition. There was the Te Papa exhibition “Letter Man: Joseph Churchward’s world of type” in 2008, after which a collection of his work was placed in the museum’s Pacific Cultures Collection. He was the subject of a 2009 book by David Bennewith, and the following year Churchward made the Queen’s Honours list for services to typography, which acknowledged his renown as “the world’s most prolific typeface designer”. After his death in 2013, Wellington’s City Gallery held an exhibition, “Churchward Samoa”, in 2014.
With Roundsquare introducing his designs to new audiences, let’s take a look at some Churchward classics.
Churchward Samoa
Created as a tribute to the Apia-born designer’s homeland (others referenced his Chinese heritage), this font and 33 others are available to purchase from BluHead Studios, which Churchward tasked with digitising his extensive archive – a process outlined by print studio Boot Boyz Biz, which produced a now-sold-out Churchward T-shirt. It’s festooned with his typefaces, including Churchward Brush Italic, which calls to mind the grocery store signwriting, and Churchward Ta Tiki.
Churchward Samoa is one of dozens of the designer’s fonts to be digitised. (Images: BluHead Studios, Boot Boyz Biz)
Churchward Māori
A curvaceous font that incorporates koru motifs, it was designed amidst the politics of the 1980s. One of Churchward’s most familiar designs, it can be seen on the cover of Salient magazine and Hana Pera Aoake’s 2020 book A bathful of kawakawa and hot water, who also co-edited the publication He Kotahitanga, which features the font throughout.
Churchward Māori has been used for several publications. (Images: Salient, Moana Fresh, Ke Te Pai Press)
Churchward Marianna
Named after one of his daughters, Churchward designed this when she was six. He described the font as “plumpy”, and it appears to have been a popular choice for record covers in the 1970s, particularly in France.
Marianna’s been used for everything from a 1979 French-language Star Wars audio book to this 1971 French single. (Images: Flickr/Fontsinuse.com)
Churchward International Typefaces by David Bennewith
By all accounts, the definitive book on Churchward. He worked on it with author and designer David Bennewith via correspondence (packages full of photocopies, newspaper clippings and letters) and in-person meetings. It details the typographer’s lengthy and influential career – including some rejection letters received for fonts he sent out into the world, unsolicited designs for TV networks, political parties, government departments and even a new national flag. Currently out of print, Auckland Central Library holds a copy in its Heritage Collection, which can be viewed by appointment only, and there are copies at Manukau and Takapuna research libraries.
Graphic designer David Bennewith worked with Churchward on the publication. (Images: David Bennewith)