ALBERTUS (1935) / THE PRISIONER (1967–1968)
SELECTED BY
KERRY WILLIAM PURCELL
DESIGNED BY
BERTHOLD WOLPE
The designs that matter to us often inspire and shape our opinions surreptitiously. Slipping under our critical radar, it is only years later that we become aware of their enduring influence on our choices and obsessions. In retrospect, my Proustian moment was the 1960s program The Prisoner, or more specifically, the typeface used throughout “the village” as a kind of totalitarian identity.
For those unaware of this cult classic, the program follows an ex secret agent (played by Patrick McGoohan) who is held captive in a secret coastal village. Upon arrival, all the individuals in the village are given a number, with the main character appointed Number 6. In each episode, the authorities devise various means by which to discover why Number 6 resigned from his job. As noted, beyond the narrative’s absorbing twists and turns, what is most striking about this show is the use of a bastardized version of Berthold Wolpe’s 1935 typeface, Albertus.
Originally released by Monotype, Albertus was used most extensively by Wolpe himself in his book designs for Faber & Faber. It was possibly something about the traditionalism of that institution that first appealed to McGoohan (who was a major influence on the look of all seventeen episodes) to use it as the voice of authority in The Prisoner. Throughout the village, posters, maps, street signs, food labeling, and even newspapers are all set in this classical, but also curiously modern, typeface. In each instance, the typeface is applied to designs that are reduced to their bare essence. Whether it is neutral colors on tins of peas or objective imagery in electoral posters, all merely serve to enforce the sense of insidious authoritarianism that pervades the village.
The Prisoner’s visual identity remains an oft-ignored but highly influential work in the history of design.