Design Crit: Business cards from American Psycho
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- čas přidán 12. 06. 2024
- In American Psycho, Patrick Bateman sure has some strong feelings about stationery design, but is it founded on reality or fiction? In this video we'll look at the typography, card stock, print embellishments and layout of the business cards of Pierce & Pierce's many Vice Presidents of Mergers & Acquisitions.
0:00 Deconstructing the minute details of stationery design
0:31 Patrick Bateman's card
3:48 David Van Patten's card
5:00 Timothy Bryce's card
6:59 Paul Allen's card
9:30 Analyzing the cards as a set
11:32 The flawed premise (being deliberately pedantic)
#AmericanPsycho #Design #BusinessCards
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Sources:
The Business Cards of American Psycho by Claire Greene
hobancards.com/american-psych...
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Carlson Craft - The Craft of Thermography
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Neenah Paper - The Beauty of Letterpress
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Panda Sandwich Press
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“It’s color is diarrhea and the font is comic sans...”
*everyone comes closer in awe*
*clapping together while thinking was it a jokes?*
Writen : "John smiths - graphic designer"
Where can I purchase this holy grail of the business card world?
The technical term is bilirubin.
Look at the subtle offbrown coloring of it. The tasteful thickness of it...
@@joaopedroauriemo "omg, i can even smell the doodoo"
Patrick Bateman (serial killer )
“Bone” “Silian Rail”
David Van Patten (obsessed with high end restaurants )
“Eggshell with Romalian type”
Timothy Bryce (pale businessman who likes to get high )
“raised lettering, pale nimbus white”
GENIUS!
'Romalian' is close to "Rumaali' - a type of very fine, paper thin and soft flatbread made in traditionally high-end Indian / Afghan / Persian cuisine - the word itself means handkerchief; the bread actually is as thin and soft as a fine muslin cloth.
This is the analysis I needed
Paul Allen (juicy corpse whose blood is splattered all over)
"subtle off-white coloring, tasteful thickness, watermark"
This has made me like the movie twice as much
I'm just realizing this scene also gives the audience an opportunity to get everyones name straight.
Omg that’s a great point I never realized :0
Now let’s see Paul Allen’s comment
that brilliant considering they all look the same 😅
@@beafbuger except Bateman has a slightly better haircut
actually no, that's the whole point of the movie, you can't tell anyone apart.
@@stormanimations5422 Almost. The point of the movie is that some characters can't get other characters names straight. This scene gives the AUDIENCE a chance to get the names straight. If Paul Allen would have stuck around for this scene he could have figured out Halverstram is actually Bateman.
I kinda feel like Bateman targeted Paul not only because he was jealous of his success but he was tired of being mistaken for dickhead with a less slightly better haircut. Even though anonymity is an advantage for a serial killer, it probably still stings a little bit when no one knows your name.
I’ve always believed “bone” was a joke given the character’s particular sensibilities.
Bone seems to be a fairly popular name for off-white shades. As Linus said, its usually warmer and yellower, but it could feasibly be any of the many colours you'd see on an actual, real bone.
@@jameswalker199 Fair enough, but I don’t think it’s an accident that such a word found its way into that piece of dialogue.
Notice his 'crossword puzzle' 0:11. At least 4 of his answers are 'bone'.
@@Cl0ckcl0ck He even tries to make a "bone" at 40 by putting the b outside the puzzle lmao
I always thought bone color was some sort of vintage material, like an improved version of yellow paper when there were no bleaching chemicals to make paper white. And Patrick deliberately made it bone-colored to create a 19th-century vibe. Doesn't quite fit in with his minimalist modern interior design in his apartment. But maybe that's why he thinks Paul Allen's apartment looks better - it has a classic sense that suits them better.
I think the misspelling of the word acquisition is because they want to show that all these people are so obsessed about the minimal differences that they do not even notice that the word is misspelled .
Yep, all of them are misspelled not just Batemans
Nice analysis but I saw an interview with the production designer who said the misspelling of acquisitions was a mistake because she ran out of time when making the materials for this scene
@@viviandarkbloom23 Probably the same reason the “raised” type wasn’t raised.
@@viviandarkbloom23 That's too bad. I had hoped that the misspelling along with the imaginary font names, the erroneous/bullshit technical details and the phone numbers all being the same was a product of (and a foreshadowing of) the unreliable narrator's psychotic delusions.
They want to show that Bateman is insane and imagining 90 percent of the sht that is happening in the movie.
The fact that none of what Patrick Bateman is seeing, hearing, and thinking actually matches reality only adds to his character.
lool 😂 haha ya i was like.. where is the watermark LLL
yeah. The book is a stellar example of an unreliable narrator. The movie is fine, but struggles with the portrayal of how messed up Bateman is.
@@T4gProd idk when the atm said feed me a stray cat and without hesitation as if it were normal he attempts to stuff a cat in it was when i realized just how fucked he was. I mean i knew it was bad but dang. And then the scenes that follow that sequence really puts the whole thing into perspective
@Laguna Bum not everything he is a killer still
@Laguna Bum he does actually kill people just not Paul Allen
The card scene is technically a "dick measuring contest." It's men in Bateman's world measuring the size of worth by the simplicity of ordering business cards, and parading they acquire vast knowledge of stationary trends, when in reality the fonts, coloration and paper are named differently by company. Bret Easton Ellis was a genius to make a scene like this to counter the ridculounesses of how far men will go to feel like men in their own social circles and how we shouldn't be so envious of these people.
Additionally, when you read the way Ellis describes how the characters dress in the book, it makes them come off as looking like cool, slick, trendy, fashionable people. But then you look up the clothes that are being described and come to realise the characters are all dressed like _clowns_ in bright, garish, mismatched clothing.
best comment here
I don't think I ever experienced what you're talking about in my social circle. If anything women will go into a "dick measuring contest" by checking themselves out, comparing their clothes and thinking of which one is better, critisizing each other's makeups etc. etc.
This. 👏
It's not about "men", it's about the obsessive competition in the upper class. The whole movie is a mockery of the upper class.
the fact that that these business cards are so unremarkable only makes how seriously Patrick takes them more funny
The fact that they're mediocre is exactly the point of the scene. Obsession over trivial apperances.
Exactly!
He acknowledges that in the end, despite all of the inaccuracies it's a perfect scene to depict the characters.
@@soxpeewee czcams.com/video/DdOpyqnH92Y/video.html
also that they're full of shit
Yep, literally turning themselves into shallow products. A collage of all the materials they attach to themselves or consume.
“There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me. Only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our life styles are probably comparable, I simply am not there.”
the point of this scene is... to normal people, they all look almost exactly alike. There are only minimal, pointless differences.
Correct! Also, username doesn't check out. Could've been meaner. ;)
@Wheeler Dealer Nice bait
@Wheeler Dealer there are differences but in the scene, we aren't given time or a good enough view to notice them.
And just like their card, those "suit" people also look similiar
Exactly. It's about petty oneupmanship. It's also an analogy to the characters themselves being interchangeable, tying in with how the characters including Bateman mix each other up several times throughout the film.
"We never see anybody do any actual work..."
Yeah no, that's 100% accurate.
That's because it's satire
and 100% on purpose
Given Patrick’s dad apparently “practically owns half the company” and at the end Jean going through his schedule only sees the occasional social event marked down (among the other things), Patrick at the very least probably doesn’t actually do work, or anything to keep his job other than show up to the occasional meeting, do his best not to come across as an ignorant ass during them and make appearances at the office and look busy so no one asks too openly why this obvious nepo-baby works at the company. He was probably given an empty title and an office with a secretary and salary to go with the title, all likely in an effort to ensure that Patrick doesn’t disgrace his father by not being “successful.” Perhaps the others actually put in at least the appearance of work to keep their jobs, but Patrick at least appears to be nothing more than a showpiece tucked away behind the various trophies lest someone look to closely and recognize its worthlessness.
How to be good at a corporate job 101:
1. Spend the first hour getting coffee and greeting business associates
2. Do work for a little bit
3. Get lunch for another hour
4. Pretend to work until 5:00
Scyllia is an alternate of Scylla, which might make sense being used by Bateman as an easter egg for people listening closely. Scylla looks harmless, but is actually a dangerous monster that will kill you if you enter their lair. It's unlikely the director made up a word out of nowhere rather than making a direct reference to something in Bateman's character. The fact that the color he chose is "bone" is another indicator of his mindset.
@@ErZi-uo7fm I'm not sure I agree. Braille uses a very specific alphabet made up of raised dots. I highly doubt you could name a font 'Braille' or anything including that term just because the letters are 3d.
@@bakarenibsheut12you can name a font whatever you want. What are you on about?
@@Carl_Brutananadilewski In general, yes, you can name a font whatever you want. You can't, however, do something like name the font of this CZcams Comment 'Gabriel Serif' since this is a sans serif font (doesn't have little perpendicular lines on the edges of the characters), so it would be wrong to have just a serif in the name if it isn't a serif font.
@@bakarenibsheut12 I can change the font to whatever I want and if I make it, I can name it whatever I want. Again, what are you on about? Do you think every single computer on earth displays the same font for CZcams comments, regardless of whatever Google set as the default style? Also even funny is CZcams defaults to Roboto like every other Google service/device. Too bad for you, I’m seeing SF Pro.
@@Carl_Brutananadilewski Fair enough, different people might see different fonts on CZcams for any number of reasons (browser version, app version, internet speed etc.) It doesn't change the fact that it's misleading (or at least inaccurate) to name a font in such a way that it implies a characteristic the font doesn't actually have. If the inventor of a vanilla cake recipe named it 'Death by Chocolate' if the recipe didn't use any chocolate, I don't think many people would be defending their right to name it whatever they wanted.
Impressive, very nice. Let's see Paul Allen's analysis
My god, the video even has a watermark
@@Nikotheleepic rofl
Jesus, it's been years by now. Write something original.
@@balabanasireti no
"10 minutes in length. They asked me to like and subscribe. Oh my god... there's even a Raid Shadow Legends sponsorship."
Considering that he was filling in the crossword puzzle with the words “meat” and “bone”, I think the name of Patrick’s card’s color is no coincidence
That occurred to me for the first time while watching this video as well.
That occurred to me for the first time while watching American Psycho as well.
Literally everything in good writing is supposed to be 100% deliberate. There's even an industry term for it: Checkov's gun.
Good job Sherlock. Amazing.
Also egg shell - empty headed.
The sound of Bateman's and Bryce's business card holders being opened is actually the sound of a katana being sheathed.
I worked for a newspaper, I was aware there were branding conformities and a style guide, but I was six weeks in and still didn't have my business cards because of someone else's incompetence.
So I just grabbed the company logo onto a USB and popped down to the printer's on my lunch break.
Discussed some options with the printer, and left.
A few days later I arrived at work to find everyone gathered around a desk ooohing and aaaaahing over my cards.
Total American Psycho scene as everyone realised mine were distinctly nicer than the authorized, issued cards.
So of course, they just awarded the printer a contract to redo EVERYONE'S cards using my template, to maintain conformity.
The great irony is that absolutely nobody noticed I'd actually grabbed the old logo file that day.
Ten years later nobody's business cards match the shade of red or font used in the newspaper's letterhead, and I recently saw a reporter driving a new CAR branded with the old logo because the same printer does the vinyl wraps.
Goddamn I didn’t see that coming.
Quite the amusing story, I must say
Trendsetter
As a graphic designer and someone who worked in a place that did both business cards and car wraps, this is why I ALWAYS looked up the branding guidelines of whatever company I was doing work for. 80% of the time I would be asked to make collateral that would violate the rules. Stuff like this is the prime example of why. I even had a director of a company ask my to violate the rules. What did I say? "Ok, let me forward this to get signed off on by your branding deprtment!" We graphic designers have to watch out for each other.
I think the misspelling of Acquisitions might have been on purpose, they get really serious and competitive over these cards and yet humorously, every single one has a major spelling error that none of them have noticed, almost as if they’re paying attention to the wrong things, which is purposefully a very common occurrence, for example when Bateman is dumping the body, as he’s stuffing it into the back of a car, all the passerby’s notice is the overnight bag and not the suspicious shape of its contents.
The world of American Psycho is all about people who care too much about the wrong things, such as getting reservations at Dorsia, superficial things, etc…
No it was NOT on purpose. Jesus christ you guys are good at making up stories for your own amusements. The lady who was behind the movie props told everyone it was a mistake because she ran out of time to send the cards back and fix them
@@TheSilverwing999 it was a happy accident
@@TheSilverwing999 You're everyone's favourite person at parties.
@@ValkyrieTiara It's sad that people would rather intentionally delude themselves than come to terms with reality.
@@EnvyMachinery Speak for yourself.
I love how point of the scene is to show how they are basically all the same but Allen’s still looks the best
Agreed, after Allen I would say Bateman.
@@sirchris6047 You ain't seen nothing yet.
@@f.b.i8809 how did a nitwit like you get so tasteful?
Paul Allen's business could have been scrawled in crayon and the others would _still_ have fawned over it... because it's Paul Allen.
I like Bateman's font and debossing effect the most. Paul Allen's has better spacing though, Bateman's leaves too much empty space at the top.
The texture effect of the other two cards makes them look cheap. Especially Bryce's card looks like they just printed on some random cardboard box they had lying around.
My US corporate employer in the 90s allowed us to print our own business cards as yes it started many pissing matches between execs of who had the best business card. One guy went so far as to specially order transparent cards made out of a flexible opaque blue plastic and one of our finance managers had ones that were entirely coated in fancy gold leaf material and the info was in silver ink. It eventually got so out of hand that the company made us use ones that they printed for us but we still gave out the fancy personalized ones to friends and family.
I interpreted the scene as a bunch of business guys making up design stuff to one-up each other, even though they all have the same card. Then it contrasts how Patrick overreacts later.
I always love hearing fellow designers talk about how wrong these characters. Great video.
Claude Garamond's early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Garamond Classico came out in '90, I think the typeface really came into its own, commercially and artistically.
Godbold, are you wearing a raincoat?
@@bennygerow Yes he does!
Hey Paul!
@@dbensdrawinvids8390 AARRRGHHHG
@@tkfeelg1902 TRY GETTING A RESERVATION AT DORSIA NOW, YOU FUCKING STUPID BASTARD!
I'm glad they didn't use real font names, the manufactured ones sounded way more pompous which I feel the point was. I also think each card was made worse looking then the following purposefully (ie. Bateman's card not having the proper spacing after the &, and such).
Could be the characters were too dumb to remember or just made up names that sounded good
I also think thy did on purpose, because they actually had to produce these cards as a prop. So what effort would it be to write down the paper color, printing-method and font they chose? And the color of Bateman's card is called bone!! Hello? BONE!!
I interpreted it almost as the characters deliberately describing their cards wrong. They know they know nothing about visual design, but they have to fool themselves and others into thinking they do, so they throw out buzzwords and made up type faces, both knowing yet simultaneously ignoring the fact that none of them have any idea what they are talking about. It's a game of bluff, where they are all bullshitting and are pretty sure the others are too, but they can't be certain so they keep up the lies to avoid upsetting the status quo.
@@BambiTrout yeah, that would be consistent with how they talk and attempt to one up each other whilst spewing nonsense elsewhere in the film as well. Think for example the Israelis being killed in Sri Lanka. We've got to assume that this was on purpose, there's no way that a Hollywood film, especially one that pays as much attention to appearances as this one, would have them describe a card as having raised lettering whilst filling the screen with a card without raised lettering by accident.
@@kapitankapital6580 ...
I like how Bateman's card has a few subtle hints to his actual nature as an unstable psychopath.
The font he used creates an inconsistent height for the numbers, with 5 and 3 dipping low and 6 jutting out high, creating a subtle yet unstable feel.
It's also the only card with the Ampersand error, but the fact that every card has the "Aquisitions" error means that such a mistake probably went completely overlooked as well.
I honestly need to give my respect to whoever was in charge of picking out these cards. They're barely around long enough for the audience to even pick up on the subtlety, but the prop department went all in on making them feel genuine.
This is probably one of the most strangely satisfying scenes to watch over and over again. They way everyone shows off their cards, describing how they were put together and the way Bateman is narrating shows just how serious and humorous this whole part is.
The first time I watched this film, I was so confused when they said the lettering was raised and that Paul Allan’s business card came with a watermark. I feel validated to know none of those things were actually there. 🤣
It's because they're all idiots only pretending to be trendy and none of them have any idea what anything is.
And from what I understand about the movie, that's actually the point.
@@SecretlyStarscream Lol that they're all just babbling?
@@himesilva Yea. None of them actually know what they're talking about and in the books that's something that they make clear. They're all pretty much assuming its good and putting up a façade to fake everyone. Bateman knows this but it still gets to him because it makes him feel a sense of inferiority. It didn't matter than none of the cards were actually any good. It just mattered that everyone preferred Paul's over Patrick's
You're not the only one. When I saw that the typeface wasn't raised and etc, I blamed the props manager.
Someone really should have gone over the proofs when having a "hero gun" style close up on the props.
The genius part really is how easily they could have made Allen's card fundamentally better. Even removing the typo would have elevated it but they left it mediocre so any perceived differences in design quality are subjective and psychotic.
I think they deliberately made his worse. It's margins are off / the alignment is wrong compared to the others. He's convinced of his own genius, and while they're all almost exactly the same he is the only one that has a card that's objectively worse.
@@shraka Nah that's just the camera angle, the other cards were on a table, but Patrick was holding this one in his hand, hence why the alignment seems off but it's not
The prop lady just ran out of time jeeze.
Unfortunately it was done by error. But it works
The misspelling is not a part of the book and for the movie they already revealed that it was a mistake and not intentional to misspell anything
I did work on Wall Street in the 80s, but it was with a large bank. The bank produced the business cards, which all conformed to a standard. No fine printing was done with computers. On a side note, I had the pleasure to meet Hermann Zapf at the Grolliers Club. They were giving an exhibit of his work. In my opinion, his life's work was worth all the bankers I ever met.
off topic, but i'm just wondering if you saw people act this way when you worked on wall street in the 80s. were the guys obsessed with perfection and order like how they're represented in this movie? were people constantly trying to 1-up each other? just curious
@@becca-tg5pn I recall overhearing conversations about suspenders and suit linings. Those were the only part of one's attire that were open to creativity. You'd see people with almost identical suits and crazy satin linings. I wore bespoke shirts from Ascot Chang in those days.
how much cocaine did niggas imbibe on a daily basis?
I would ask you who Hermann Zapf is but I have to return some videotapes.
Working in engineering, my colleagues and I made a combined attempt to request company business cards after seeing and LOVING this movie. It didn't work, as we never talk to customers. So we customized our Outlook fonts and signatures instead.
It's funny you bring up Zaph, because I selected Optima as my default for correspondence, with monospaced fonts for raw data.
But for my email signature, I just had to mimic Paul Allen, as his card unsettled Bateman the most. 👍
12:16 Just saying, this is kind of the point of the film, and is directly referenced when Bateman's own attorney doesn't recognize him at the end. The book's name, American Psycho, is both an allusion to the corporate culture of the US during that period and also an allusion to the tendency of Americans (that is often commented upon by foreigners) to wear false smiles and appear friendly when they are actually very judgmental and cruel. A lot of the early social interaction scenes at the beginning are meant to really hammer home the performative nature of American culture that enforced a very uniform set of "valid" opinions and behaviors at that time. When everyone believes and behaves in the same ways, they become unrecognizable as individuals.
The even make a point of Paul Allen calling Bateman "Marcus" because there's another dude who looks exactly like Bateman, wears the same suits, has the same glasses, has the same job title, and even goes to the same barber, the only difference between them to Patrick is that he has a slightly better haircut to Marcus which makes him better. But Patrick also just goes along with it because it doesnt matter in the end
which is even more hilarious given how much American culture likes to champion individuality and individual expression. When there's so much more conformity readily available.
The tasteful thickness of this analysis.. Oh My God.. It even has a side by side compersion
Compersion? I'll have to aquire some of that myself
Goblin, are you alright your sweating
Love this video! Couple of things:
1) Back in the 1980s, most investment banks (I think all except for Solomon Brothers) were private partnerships, which meant that there was less corporate branding as contrasted to now days. The banks probably had their logos on business cards, but it's not completely out of the realm of possibilities that different bankers could opt for different fonts on their own.
2) In the book, it is made much clearer that Bateman and his banker friends really don't have good taste but pretend to. For instance, throughout the book, everyone's favorite bottled water is Evian (at the time, a trendy, expensive water brand). Towards the end of the book, Timothy Price (in this scene, Timothy Bryce) shamefully admits he doesn't like the taste of Evian. This goes perfectly with your critiques: that these guys don't know what they are talking about but pretentiously pretend to.
it's made even clearer in the book that they're all as insecure as Bateman, constantly asking each other what is currently acceptable in fashion, grooming, eating etc.
@@calleandersson1904 Because it’s made very clear that appearance is everything in that world
The movie intimates it mostly by mistaken identity, but the novel is quite clear that these guys are all intentional superficial clones of an imagined archetype. In that regard their AIM is really only to be PERCEIVED as successful, attractive, fashionable, cultured, tasteful, what-have-you.
@@EternamDoov Do you mean: the '80's? :-)
@@LucidStew What do you mean, that they're all aware that they're consciously putting on a front? That's sort of less fun than a bunch of squares in denial
I was blissfully unaware, until now, that there even was a musical version of American Psycho. Thanks a lot.
I love how everyone is insane in this movie, like the actual psychopath is comparetively not so bad.
This video has really come onto it's own. Commercially and artistically
Ha! 🤣
When I see my people on these, relief hits me in an awesome wave.
I'm heartened that there are other folks besides myself who are pretty sick guys.
Your comment was a laugh riot.
I want to see how Linus would redo the cards to make them spectacular.
I like to think his hallucinations extend to the cards too. He’s missing letters because he’s not all there and the spacing is off because he’s out of sync with reality.
Nice!
I like to think about candy
The Business Card scene. Straight outta the late 80s - early 90s. Indeed, a great depiction of how it was.
I think he intentionally avoided real font names, both out of fear of trademark and to break ties with the familiar world.
Also, if the fake names sounded pompous and unreal (as they do) it would further emphasize the shallowness of these characters for fanatisizing over subtle shades of white and fonts that don't even exist.
@@ImortalZeus13 By that logic they don’t exist
I was about to ask about this. Who owns the IP for fonts?
@@andywood6376 The designer or the company they designed it for, if they took out a design patent, but many didn't do that. Computer fonts are also copyrighted.
Ye
Let's see the video's like button...
Look at that subtle cornflower blue coloring... the tasteful thickness of it... Oh my god, there's even a subscribe button under it.
Is the cornflower blue a fight club reference?
@@alisonpurgatory85 maybe... But I guess with YT's new UI changes it would be more like:
"Could I get the icon in Snow Pea white?"
Damn it.
I'm not going to think of a funnier comment than this.
Pure respect and envy just hit me in an *awesome wave*
Your comment, much like the musical; Africa Brave Africa, was a laugh riot.
t'was over krekeltjes en korenbloemenblauw...
How about that dislike button?
When seeing Timothy Bryce’s card I would always ask, WHERE IS IT RAISED? I knew it wasn’t! This is a really awesome analysis. Thank you for this awesome content!
This was so fun! My degree was in Graphic Design in the very early 80s, and pre DTP pre PCs being relevant outside of the printers themselves. Since then I strayed away after a military career into media production, but always was sensitive to the abundance of unprofessional and clearly untrained designs I saw. I also saw (and was disturbingly a fan of) American Psycho haha. This was a great refresher course in its own way. Thank you for the huge grin I had the hole video LOL
There is actually a business card that you missed in the film and I would like your thoughts on it. Luis Carruther's buissness card is briefly shown to the guys, it compelled Bateman to almost kill Luis in the washroom.
Yes, the article linked covers that scene - the card is hideous! 😂 Green foil and gold!
@@LinusBoman also inconsistent as well, Luis's name is typed normally with lowercase letters while his surname is all capitalized.
@@13EqualsB all the cards have that tho 11:17
Capitalizing the surname is a regular old school convention in many languages (like French). I have never seen anglo-saxons use it though.
@@djalil_YT agree. In the past there was less emphasis on the individual name, but more so on the family’s name. Loads of places still goes by Family’s name first, personal name last
The use of fictional fonts has to be an intentional decision by author Bret Easton Ellis because he did immerse himself in that Yuppie world and did research into their fixation on boastful image and materialism. I wouldn't be shocked if these were bs things he heard people actually say. Maybe a quarter of the book is Patrick describing his imported turtle shell toothbrush and home entertainment system and what makes something sparkling water. A big running theme is the constant repetition of information that can just be read from a pamphlet or brochure or magazine. The other details tend to indicate Patrick knows nothing about anything he buys other than price. He even hangs a painting upside down. His inner monologue is far less detailed and more emotional when looking at Paul Allen's. It's amazing writing really, character depth through absolute shallowness.
Which makes this a perfect movie to pair with fight club.
There's a chapter from the POV of Paul Allen?
The implication that the author “couldn’t even name a real typeface” was indeed a bit galling. It isn’t a scene about the relative merits of typefaces. It’s a scene about how shallow these men are. The name of the typeface matters much less than the way they say it.
"fictional fonts"
I don't know where or how is it known that the Font was fictional. it means the font was unique, special designed only for this card. of course it was not so.
that font types exist, yes, Font Types, mixed two types if it was so,
I love how obsessed he was with the cards and didn't even notice his spelling errors
the scene being vapid and filled with misinformation perfectly aligns with the movie's message
“There’s no specific naming convention for whites.” Let’s go with John.
Brock O'Hara?
With Smith after that
Walter
How about Will Smith?
Should I get my business cards printed on Caucasian or WASP? I can never decide on a color. ;-p
I love how they give all of these fancy terms for how distinct their cards are, yet they're nearly indistinguishable at a glace. All of them even have the same job. This movie is a glorious satire of yuppie culture.
Yeah, I would be a bit reluctant to publicly critique the differences between the cards - the point is the conformity.
I actually like the missing space in Pierce &Pierce
I think it works well with the lower case sized ampersand
Honestly the idea that they'd have crap taste and no idea what they're talking about fits this movie perfectly. XD
Brilliant analysis. As a designer and typographer myself, I totally agree with your points.
I always took the satirical meaning of this scene to be that the cards are all essentially the same. Such is the competition and paranoia between the bankers that they're all questioning their own choices and second guessing their stylistic decisions. No one really knows whose it 'best'.
The typesetting and layout are definitely all lacking in the cards. That large top margin compared with the tiny bottom margin, totally the wrong way around, the content looks like it's falling off the card. I also think the typos were intentional as part of the meaning of the scene (the implication being that these guys are all clueless despite their posturing).
Thanks Joshua. Agree, there's probably more deliberate intent with some of these "mistakes" than I implied - should have maybe emphasised that a little more. Anyway, glad you enjoyed the video!
Now that I look at the scene, it's even more brilliant that I thought. One fascinating thing is that there's a pretty clear social hierarchy with Bateman near the bottom and Allen near the top, and that the bankers are ganging up on Bateman.
I think you can read alot into them
@@josephwang5859 Bateman was given the job, they kinda had to work for it. Also Bateman can barely keep up appearances.
Maybe them all being Vice Presidents is not real either. Maybe they all actual work in the mail room, but maybe they really went out and got themselves business cards anyway.
Everything in this scene as with the entire film and novel was deliberate. The name of the company is Pierce & Pierce, like piercing twice with a sharp implement. Bateman's name is a reference to the Bates Motel in Hitchcock's Psycho which in turn could be a reference to the masturbatory joke in Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, in which one of Fagin's pickpocket boys is called Charley Bates, i.e. Master Bates. Bateman and the others couldn't see the flaws in the cards i.e. couldn't see their own flaws, but could see the flaws in others; Bateman saw a watermark that wasn't there, and they each see fonts that aren't there, i.e. see things in general that aren't there, or perhaps things that could potentially be there, in the same way that Bateman's killing spree may or may not be real, but is conceivably, potentially real; the phone numbers are identical, and cards almost identical, just as as Bateman and the others are almost identical, echoing the disintegration, loss or absence from the beginning of a true reflection, a capacity for self-awareness, suggesting that each and every one of them is an American Psycho.
Excellent analysis. :-)
Have you got a CZcams channel doing film analysis yet? If not why not? (-:
NAILED IT
Not to mention their reading into things that may or may not be real issues while overlooking the very real and obvious typographical errors
I read something about the one "interesting guy" in Batemans life and how that character like, disappears for most of the movie, only to reappear at the end with some views on Reagan-ism in some kind of either pseudo-intellectual way, or as the result of a type of character change.
I wonder if he was a murderer as well, but perhaps through his revelations he had a change of heart, unlike Batemans character.
Makes me wonder if they were looking for that guy during the "police shooting scene" and hence, because they all look alike, each one got away due to mistaken identity. It would make sense in the way that: How did the police know what building to put the search light on? Was he not at the office if I recall? Which would be, all of their offices technically and so maybe theres hints to suggest each one of them has a killing spree under their belt or something..
Dunno just thinkin aloud, babblin on like Babylon again.
This is a very interesting anysis, and l learned several things about fonts and business cards. Easton Ellis has mentioned in interviews that many of the things his characters were described as wearing or owning/displaying were selected randomly from catalogs and used by him in the story with complete abandon. That if the characters had actually worn the clothes listed that they would have looked like ridiculously mismatched clowns. The important thing was in conveying the right mood and story. I have no doubt the business cards were much the same, and you do correctly confirm that toward the end. Nicely done, and very informative.
Outdated but still one of the best. I love that type of font. Kudos to Paul Allen.
Let's rank Linus Boman's video...
Look at that subtle color correction. The tasteful length of it. Oh my God, it even has chapters.
Underrated comment
The errors and issues with the cards are intentional. They are so self absorbed that they don't even notice the horrible cards. The names of the fonts and colors could all be made up intentionally as the scene is just about them trying to one up each other. The whole premise of their interaction is who has the most status even though they all technically are equal at the firm as "vice president". Its the same thing with "dorsia" all of the characters say they can get reservations to try and impress each other but its not clear if any of them are actually able to accomplish this. This is all from the perspective of the psycho though so what we are seeing are his delusions.
It's even conceivable that pretentious upscale printshops serving this type of area would put extra effort into making up pretentious stock and ink (and font?) names just to appeal to vacuous rich a**holes and separate them from their money.
Paul allens card is correct though
@Squant pure headcanon. There is no proof.
@@yellowfamilyfunny3065 also missing the 'c' in acquisitions
I so much want to believe that someone had the balls to misspell “acquisitions” in order to highlight the characters’ shallowness. Imagine floating that idea with the director, or not floating it and seeing if you could get away with it. It’s probably too late to ever find the truth, because someone no doubt will claim the idea now that the cat is out of the bag.
i always thought there were deliberate mistakes in font names: author wanted to show how pretentious those people are, speaking of things they have no clue about with a know-it-all facade. i’ve saw it multiple times in real life with my clients (i’m a little screenprint workshop owner)
I’m bored to tears but I can’t stop watching
Never in the 29 years of my life did I think I was going to be remotely interested in all the fine details and intricacies of a business card.
I think the names of the font is a way to avoid paying royalties for the font with the print edition. Since the font is never seen by the reader, it doesn't make sense to pay a royalty to use the name Helvetica.
So you think you have to pay royalties for *mentioning* Helvetica rather than for *using* it. Does that make sense?
@@0cer0 It's a brand name like Coca Cola. It's why companies makeup closely related names for products. When it's used in an unpopular book, it probably wouldn't be an issue. But once a book becomes famous, the lawyers tend to come out.
@@KevinSmith-qi5yn Sounds like the sort of thing an experienced editor would flag
In this case, he had no problems paying royalties to 50 or more fashion brands, because he is „branding“ every suit, dress or shoe. Also his critics of a musician after a climatic killing szene. Whitney, Phil Collins and Huey Lewis i think..
Also cars, TV‘s etc are existing brands
Never thought I'd be watching these videos but here I am fascinated with Fonts!
excellent video! I work more from a product design standpoint and love the historical lore that you're able to expose with fonts. I'm really happy you ended the video with a positive appreciation of the scene; I love these kind of intellectual analyses, but 2/3 of the way through I found myself itching for a little bit of recognition for the pure comedy of the scene. you seem like a genuine guy and your expertise in script writing and editing are a blessing to CZcams
I'm a proofreader and hand letterer, and that scene in AMERICAN PSYCHO drove me absolutely off my nut with "Acquisitions" misspelled on all four cards! I kept waiting for the inevitable punchline where one of them looks more closely at his card and starts groaning...but it never came.
Bateman chose "bone" color because of the name. "Bone" is usually more yellowish but they visual department probably intentionally went with a cold color as the business cards represent the personalities or individuals. I think the misspelling was intentional. People were more into looks than substance.
Had to settle for Bone, Entrails were out of stock.
Bbbbbb
I think the spelling would be intentional if it were only one of the cards that was wrong. It's too unlikely that four well educated people would misspell their own job descriptions.
Would that the misspelling were intentional; unfortunately it's because the props buyer (and this was by her own statement) got the cards back without enough time to send them back to the printer for another run to fix the typo, so they had to shoot with the misspelled cards.
@@katherineberger6329 this just makes the scene funnier in my opinion, since it suggests that all of these guys, just like the props buyer, got their cards from the same supplier and ostensibly there's no real difference between them, even down to the spelling mistake.
I just watched this movie last night for the first time and I absolutely loved it! And your video was recommended to me today on the CZcams home page. So weird, but I am so happy I found this video. Thank you so much for taking the time to do the research that I didn't want to do! So awesome!
I really can't imagine a decent company not having a design identity put in place as you said in your summation.
Wow.... If the mistakes in the cards were deliberate, then it makes the scene so much better in its theme of Bateman as an unreliable narrator. If it really were mistakes... It still adds into the themes and Bateman's perspective 🤣 how brilliant
I never read the book or watched its film adaptation, but what I know is that a major part of the story is that Bateman is a VERY unreliable narrator. So unreliable that even the AUTHOR HIMSELF doesn't know whether or not Bateman is actually a serial killer. It makes sense that mistakes in the business cards would be not just present, but deliberate.
@@NebLleb watch it, it's a great film, and not too long.
They were not deliberate. That’s all I’m saying cause another thread imploded after someone explained more
It was a mistake by the prop department, and they didn't have time to fix it before filming.
I am really watching a 15 min Video about the business card scene in american psycho... this is my life
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
Being guilty of being a Mac hack/Quark Xpress jockey working in prepress in the early 90's, this is the analysis/critique I needed to see. Thank you so much for producing it. Miss my days working in graphic design - I had no flair so moved sideways into IT but I can still remember the Mac keyboard shortcuts for Quark/Aldus Freehand etc.
I clicked on this while searching for analysis of "AP" and now I know more about business Cards than I would have ever imagined I would've learned in my entire life
Instant subscription
Isn't cillia Latin for hair? So his cards are made of hair & bone he probably had blood added to the ink. He carries his real busy work as an abater of an abattoir in those calling cards. Note: Rail could be rÆl from Sang Ræl aka Royal blood derived from San grail as the holy grail .
I think cilium is like an eyelash, and cilia are the small hair-like bits of certain cells e.g. in the lungs. Could certainly be a very subtle reference.
Rail could be a sexual reference. BATEMAN had Freudian card choices
No, it's capillus (singular) and capilli (plural). Cilia means 'eyelashes' or anything that resembles eyelashes, as for example motile or sensory organelles of cells.
Yeah, interesting comment but the neutral name cilia (ciglia in italian, for example, wich is the plural for "ciglio", cilium then in latin, singular eyelash) indicates only the eyelashes, at least from Late antiquity latin I guess. You could search more though on its etimology
It's string spaghetti with fine imported Polish sausage. The color is called dried marinara with a light olive oil watermark...
I love the attention to detail that the font on Paul Allen's card is the same as the credits, that is so cool
Man I love listening to subject matter experts talk about their fields. Always fascinating.
Wow. This was brilliant. Thanks for putting so much effort analyzing this completely insane scene :D Glad you seem to enjoy it anyways, even you were seeing so many errors. Sometimes people destroy the fun of it, when this kind of movie material is taken apart :D
Lol yeah, the phone numbers are all the same. That's always why I thought it funny when Paul Allen hands his card to Bryce and says "Call me". They should've had Bryce look at at Allen with a raised eyebrow for a moment before saying, "We all have the same number, Paul."
I imagine the sameness of the phone numbers etc is more symbolic than to suggest they literally all had the same phone number
@@dielaughing73 Maybe - but in an office like that, they very easily could all share the same office number with an operator routing incoming calls to different desks.
@@WhatAHorribleNight plausible in the 80s, certainly
@@WhatAHorribleNight well as mid-level Executives, I thought they might share a common departmental secretary.
Were they all fighting for a promotion, and the cards were a fantasy future test?
Cilli (Pronounced Silly) was a county in Renaissance Slovenia. Famous for it's court being quite influential in it's contemporary politics. Cillian would refer to that.
@magicblanket HA!
I'm literally from Slovenia and I didn't know that. Thanks for the info!
Ah, an EU4 player
@@ulture Ah yes, a man of culture
At the Bateman's card we have very generic choice of font. It's a Garamond style typeface, meaning protagonist basically let the printer choose type for him. Furthermore spacing is off with too much headroom and less than 1/8" safe area on the bottom.
I have checked and yes it's most certainly Garamond family typeface there, exactly Display Small Caps 'What The Font' app suggest few versions: Garamond Classico Small Caps, LTC Garamond Small Caps, and mentioned Display Small Caps depending on quality of sample.
As someone wrote: Van Patten's card has a better typeface but it's a basic black ink color and it's flat printing, meaning he asked the printer for the cheapest card option (printed on copier). Covered up his lack of expensive printing by using a textured stock but again went with the cheapest 'fancy' stock option (woven Laid). Spacing with the headers and footers are off, almost the inverse of the Bateman card with too much footer space and not enough headroom. Also footer type is too condensed and the margins don't match the headers.
Bryce's card has the best typeface but the exact same spacing problems as Bateman; too much headspace and a huge gap between center mainline and footer. Also used a textured Laid stock but the funny thing is the printer printed the card on the back of the sheet instead of the raised side.
Allen's card is... alright. Good ink color, decent stock. What stands out is the footer has been turned into two center-justified lines which sets the card in an unbalanced, top-heavy shape. Not a lot of margin space up at the top. That and whoever cut the cards either did it by hand or this card was at the bottom of the stack because the edges are jagged as hell. Probably by hand because the margins are off.
Overall none of the cards are that special.
(Last comments written by print shop manager)
QUICK NOTE: some or even all cards where made in-house by prop department thats why had jagged cuts.
I think it’s a testament to how well a film is made when one scene is so iconic and debated
Wingdings all the way on my card.
☠︎♏︎❖︎♏︎❒︎ ♑︎□︎■︎■︎♋︎ ♑︎♓︎❖︎♏︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ◆︎◻︎
☠︎♏︎❖︎♏︎❒︎ ♑︎□︎■︎■︎♋︎ ●︎♏︎⧫︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ♎︎□︎⬥︎■︎
☠︎♏︎❖︎♏︎❒︎ ♑︎□︎■︎■︎♋︎ ❒︎◆︎■︎ ♋︎❒︎□︎◆︎■︎♎︎
♋︎■︎♎︎ ♎︎♏︎⬧︎♏︎❒︎⧫︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎
This was really interesting. Never thought I would watch 15 minutes of a guy explaining what fonts are, but here I am.
There is a whole movie about a font called helvetica 😅 it's pretty good actually. Probably a recommended watch for all designers
Same dude
Same
Great analysis video.
I've never imagined myself engrossed upon a 15 min video explaining business card design and manufacture.
You are so eloquent and elegant with words. Listening to your speaking is a treat!
I'm always thinking of this scene when my scientific supervisor is always insisting we use the "Humanist" typeface rather than Corbel or Calibri in our slides.
This scene is a masterpiece
This only just popped up on my feed. A delightful video, laser focused on an exceptional movie scene. Thanks for that: It made my day!
The algorithm has never been so spot on before! I just recently watched american psycho for the first time ever, my favorite scene was this one and i have a special interest in fonts and graphic design. Loved the video
One funny detail about the time American Psycho takes place (1987) could explain the weird font names. In 1987 you still had the monopoly of Type 1 fonts with Adobe, who basically owned the rights to all of the traditionally named fonts. As a result many vendors made type 3 fonts that almost looked like their counterparts, but would change one or two letters, and give the font weird names. At one point I had collected almost 20 different Helvetica rip offs.
“I used to forget my business cards before my meetings, and that’s embarrassing.”
-An ad, before this video.
Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh, my God. It even is the most replayed moment.
My dad worked for a small midwestern mergers, acquisitions & divestitures firm in the 80s and early 80s and I can confirm the business-card stationary is completely standard thing. There would be no difference between the cards in terms of layout or font - but each person would have their own contact information, it wouldn't be the same standard information around the card (and Pierce & Pierce's full company name would be spelled correctly, dammit). I think that's the genius of this scene - these guys want to look like individuals by having their card in hyper-specific variations, but they're actually more or less the same person.
Great assessment but there's a few things I think need to be mentioned: printing personalized business cards back in the 80s was no easy task like it is today with next day online printers that will sell you 10,000 business cards for a packet of cigarettes :P there were no plastic letterpress plates back then, they had to be metal, and no gang-run printing, so every person's order was already in the hundreds of dollars to start with. At that point, they figure they may as well pay a little extra for the extravagant options, such as more expensive paper. So really, what they were trying to do was outdo each other on the option$, not so much the design of it (notice how Bateman never complimented the design, only the paper and printing quality).
Second, it's possible that a lot of the papers and/or typefaces mentioned were "proprietary" to the printer; i.e. they used existing typefaces or paper and simply gave it their own name to make it appear only they had that particular element (common practice among mattress stores today, you can never comparison shop because no two chains carry the same brands). I've worked at a print shop for over 10 years and have seen it both with some of our vendors or when a customer brings us a job from an older printer (who went out of business) and tells us "they said they used so-and-so font for the writing, do you have that?" 9 times out of 10 it's some common font like Times or Century Gothic. I don't know how prevalent this was in the 80s but I see it mostly from vendors who clearly haven't updated their catalogs since then.
Last, I see corporate types get their own cards done all the time; we even offer to find their style guide to set it up correctly but they often decide to do their own thing. Is it allowed by corporate? Who knows, that's not really our problem :) Sometimes for whatever reason, they don't like their company's cards and want their own. The only time we go the extra step is when someone requests a card for a government entity, like a local city government, a fire department, etc., we will check to make sure this person is an actual employee. Beyond that, you order it, we print it. It's also possible that Pierce & Pierce, having umpteen different Vice Presidents, was some big-time financial firm that didn't care about corporate branding because they couldn't be bothered with marketing to the regular pleebs, they only promoted themselves to the big fish, who only care about results, not your branding.
Van Patten's card was the best looking one. Change my mind. The diagonal texture, the font, it's actually a very nice looking card.
i like that one too and paul allen’s (just cause it’s easy to read lol)
@@npcimknot958 it even has a watermark
I can't believe that Brandon Key prefers Van Patten's card to Bateman's.
@@aetu35 Let's see Brandon Key's card.
van patten's card looks like the front of an army surplus store, and the combo of bold and small caps for his name makes it look like the rest of the card is written in a completely different font imo
its neat to learn this was originally a book
but i couldve gone my whole life without knowing theres a musical version
That business card song is a whole bop though! "You're such a caard!"
I love how all of them are vice presidents
Great video man. I’ve watched this scene so many times. The absurdity of fighting over business card designs is hilarious. I love it. I never thought to look up the veracity of the fonts, colors or styles. I was totally fooled. I’m a solo practitioner lawyer and vistaprint works for me.
Thanks mate, glad you enjoyed it!
The red border on the thumbnail made me think I had already watched this video
this is such a fantastic subject and execution…loved this, subbed, and looking for mire from this amazing creator!
This was a surprisingly funny and informational video. Thanks!
I hear Bateman say "Sicilian Braille", not "Rail"
He does it must be referencing that fact that it's intended so you fan feel the text
I heard Braille, but not Sicilian. Google suggests it's "Silian Rail" but people hear Grail too.
I heard vermilion snail
@@kaxeniakristelle7887 I hear a million snails
i initially heard him say 'braille' too, but he does say 'rail'
The most elaborate "ACKCHYUALLY" I've ever seen
I love when people are knowledgeable of things it makes me happy
I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD COME ACROSS A VIDEO EXPLAINGING IN DETAIL OF BUSINESS CARDS....
this is one of my favourite scenes in movies, all i ever took from the scene was that the joke was that they all look almost identical which makes it even funnier how the charecters take them so seriousely, never occured to me to actually think about the subtle differences between the cards tho