I just found out that Pablo Ferro passed away last month at 83.
I missed getting a card from him. Pablo was a renown, talented and innovative title (and opening sequence) designer in the film industry.
I meet him when I lived in LA and hand lettered some film titles for him.
I loved that Pablo fought with the industry to give credit to people who handlettered the titles in his films, and toward the end of his career he finally made some headway in getting lettering artists included in the end credits.
But perhaps the most famous opening sequence he created was for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) which he lettered himself.
His lettering style spawned a flood of copycat lettering and fonts. Yes, all creative breakthroughs give succeeding artists permission … or rather encouragement … to try new methods.
His cards were always individually hand done and always made me smile. Undoubtedly I’ll think of him for many Christmases to come.
There’s a film about Pablo Ferro free with Amazon Prime. Here’s the trailer:
RIP Pablo.
—jill bell
Flommist Jill Bell is a lettering artist and type designer. Copyright © 2018 Jill Bell.
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