99% Invisible is back at it, uncovering hidden but fascinating bits of design in action. This time around it’s concerned with the art of movie title & poster design—specifically with how to deal with actors who insist on being top billed. In the case of the otherwise forgotten movie Outrageous Fortune:

Two different prints of the movie were made, one listing Shelley Long’s name first and the other listing Bette Midler’s name first. Not only that, two different covers to take-home products (LaserDisc and VHS) were also made, with different names first. The art was mirrored, so that the names aligned with the actors images.

One interesting pattern that’s emerged is to place one actor’s name in the lower left & another in the upper right—thus deliberately conflicting with normal reading order in English:

Anyway, as always with this show, just trust me—the subject is way more interesting than you might think.