Clockwise from top left: Posters for Sean Baker's Tangerine (2015) designed by P+A, The Florida Project (2017) designed by InSync Plus, Red Rocket (2021) designed by Grandson with illustration by Steven Chorney, and Anora (2024) designed by Grandson.
In case you haven’t noticed—and plenty of eagle eyes on the internet already have—Sean Baker has a font. From Tangerine (2015) through to his Palme d’Or–winning Anora (2024), which opens in US theaters today, Baker has used the same typeface for the titles and posters of his four most recent films. And while that kind of typographic consistency is not unheard of on movie credits (John Carpenter famously uses Albertus, Woody Allen rigorously uses Windsor Light Condensed, and both Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson have been known to favor various weights of Futura) it may be unprecedented when it carries over to the film’s poster titles as well.
The font in question is Aguafina Script Pro and it was designed by Alejandro Paul and Angel Koziupa for the Argentina-based Sudtipos type foundry. The Sudtipos website describes Aguafina Script Pro as “graceful, but not too casual. Knowledgeable and artistic, but not too imposing. The characters flow into each other, making a very saucy script with appetizing color,” words which also evoke Baker’s colorful, spunky, and humanistic films. They go on to say that “the narrow lowercase allows for efficient use of space, while the long ascenders and descenders help maintain the legibility. A unique find among scripts, Aguafina is useful for product packaging, glossy magazine work, and book covers.”
And movie posters. What is extraordinary about the consistency of Baker’s typography is that his last four films have been distributed by three different companies—Magnolia, A24, and Neon—and the fact that the art departments and marketing teams of all three companies have accepted and embraced this typographic auteurism speaks volumes about Baker’s integrity and vision. His films may all be very different (they each take place in such different but very specific locales, for one) but they share a common feel or ethos that allows one beautifully chosen typeface to work for them all.
I talked to Baker, recently returned from the BFI London Film Festival, about his use of the font, and especially what originally drew him to it. Baker is an avid movie poster connoisseur and collector (this month he is posting some of his favorites on Posteritati’s Instagram), and I had wondered if his use of a script font was a deliberate nod to 1980s posters for films like Footloose (1984), Risky Business (1983), Purple Rain (1984), One From the Heart (1981), Ordinary People (1980), or Terms of Endearment (1983). But in actual fact it turns out it arose from a specific design problem.
Shots from the title sequence of Tangerine (2015).
SEAN BAKER: It started off with Tangerine. Designing that opening title sequence, we knew we were going to be holding on the text for a while as we were using the background of the yellow table in that little donut shop [for the duration of the opening credits]. We knew the audience would be looking at this font for a little while because it wasn’t intercut with any images besides the table itself. So I needed to come up with something that was stylistically interesting, and I leaned into a script font, specifically the Aguafina one, because it felt right. Also, it accompanied the orchestrated version of [Perry Como’s song] “Toyland” quite nicely.
I think it was a choice that was also made because of the subject matter, which I guess is considered “gritty,” reality-based, very street-level. Usually the font that would accompany that sort of subject matter is also gritty, usually in block letters, or has some sort of edge to it, and I wanted to go in the opposite direction and work with a script font that added elegance to it, that evoked a feeling of sophistication or whimsy. There was also the tongue-in-cheek recognition of the irony of the juxtaposition.
I edit in order, so the title sequence was one of the first things I did on Tangerine. We had licensed the song; I had shot the plate, which was this table which had graffiti on it and was sort of vandalized, that yellow table. I was building the opening title sequence over it and went through a number of fonts until that one just really stuck with me, it landed.
NOTEBOOK: And even though you say there’s an irony in the juxtaposition, I saw it also as speaking to the elegance of your characters and their style rather than their surroundings.
BAKER: I like that idea! And maybe it speaks to the production itself. Again there was the irony there: we’re shooting on an iPhone, it’s gritty and this and that, but I’m trying to elevate it through the presentation. It is saying that there is an elegance to this production in the way we’re presenting the subject matter.
I think I recognized this on the second film, when I was looking for a font for The Florida Project [2017], and I realized, Oh, this is doing the same thing, in that it was making a statement about how this subject matter is just as elegant and just as sophisticated. I’m trying to make non-judgmental films, right? So if I have a gritty font it would be judging, in a way, so I wanted to do something that would juxtapose it intentionally.
Shots from the title sequence of The Florida Project (2017).
So one led to the next. And by the way, the font isn’t exactly what you would get as a download. We did try to personalize it to make it slightly our own. I realized on Florida Project that, okay, if I continue this it could eventually become something that people connect with—and connect with my films. And I’m not saying that’s such an original thought. I was taking a cue from John Carpenter and Woody Allen, quite honestly. Now when you see those fonts, you think of those filmmakers and their films.
NOTEBOOK: So there is a precedent in terms of titles and credits, but not so much in John Carpenter and Woody Allen’s posters, right? Their poster designers seem to do their own thing.
BAKER: Yes. I like to have consistency between my advertising material and the actual credits.
NOTEBOOK: I always love when the title on the poster matches the title on the film because it doesn’t often happen. So was there a graphic designer on Tangerine?
BAKER: That was just me. Because I edit my own films, I was in charge of choosing that font.
NOTEBOOK: Had you always done your own type work on your other films prior to that?
BAKER: Yes, with these independent films, we’re wearing many hats, so the editor’s usually also in charge of graphics.
NOTEBOOK: Were you involved in the poster design for Tangerine and Florida Project?
BAKER: Since I used that font to create my credit sequence, when it comes to getting the film out into the world, I wanted to work with the distributors’ design teams to incorporate this font into the advertising material. All the companies were very down for it, which is great because you never know. The last four films have gone from Magnolia to A24 to Neon and it’s really nice how all three companies have been completely supportive about me taking what is now this signature font from one film to the next. And, actually, what I really loved about what Neon did with Anora is that they added their own personal touch to it, which was making it into a neon sign, which was very cool.
NOTEBOOK: Right after Anora won the Palme d’Or and people really started to take notice of the consistent use of typography in your work, Stan Oh of Posteritati admiringly retrofitted your first film, Take Out [2004], with Aguafina, saying he “couldn’t resist.”
BAKER: I actually tried to do the same thing with my first four films [Four Letter Words (2000), Take Out, Prince of Broadway (2008), and Starlet (2012)] because they were recently restored, so I actually had the opportunity, if I wanted to, to redo the opening title sequences…but it didn’t work. On Starlet we tried it and it didn’t feel right.
Shots from the title sequence of Starlet (2012).
NOTEBOOK: Despite the retroactive use of the font not working for your older films, will we continue to see you use it in the future?
BAKER: Yes, I’m definitely going to continue with it. I did have some people who were a little resistant to it at first, who were like, “Are you sure you want to do this? The next film won’t be entirely its own thing.” But I pushed back against that; I didn’t agree.
NOTEBOOK: I, for one, am very happy that you did.
Shots from the title sequence of Red Rocket (2021) and the trailer for Anora (2024).
Many thanks to Sean Baker and Adam Kersh. If you liked this post, check out these other pieces about title treatments: The Title Treatment Hall of Fame, Title-Centric Posters through the Ages, and one that ties in nicely with Anora on movie poster titles as neon signs.