Papyrus font creator faces up to Ryan Gosling's 'SNL' skit
Yep, a real person designed that ancient-Egyptian-looking typeface, and he has thoughts after seeing his work dissed.
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Graphic designers were delighted by Saturday's "Saturday Night Live" skit featuring Ryan Gosling as a man who's abnormally fixated on the use of the Papyrus typeface in the "Avatar" movie logo.
But the skit also earned laughs from a surprising figure -- Chris Costello, who designed Papyrus.
"I woke up this morning Sunday and my email was full," Costello said in an interview that streamed Sunday on CBSN. "I had a lot of people telling me, 'Did you see the 'SNL' thing?' I took a look at it and me and my wife were like cracking up, I mean we couldn't stop laughing. It was one of the best things I've seen."
In the skit, presented as a fake movie trailer for a film called "Papyrus," Gosling stalks not Costello, but the unnamed graphic designer who chose it for use in the 2009 film "Avatar."
"I designed the font when I was 23 years old," Costello told CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano. "I was studying the Bible, looking for God and this font came to mind, this idea of, thinking about the biblical times and Egypt and the Middle East. I just started scribbling this alphabet while I was at work and it looked pretty cool."
Costello said he didn't get rich from the familiar typeface, selling it for $750 and receiving royalty payments he called "very low."
And if you're sick of seeing Papyrus, its creator is right there with you. "It was not my intent (for it) to be used for everything," Costello said. "It's way overused."
