The Living Planet. A Portrait of the Earth titles

Published May 8, 2026

David Attenborough celebrates his 100th birthday today. The BBC pays tribute to the great natural historian and broadcaster, and the Guardian has a list of his 100 most spectacular TV moments.

On Fonts In Use, we take a look at the titles for The Living Planet. A Portrait of the Earth. Written and presented by Attenborough, the BBC nature documentary series first aired in 1984.

From Wikipedia:

The sequel to his pioneering Life on Earth, it is a study of the ways in which living organisms, including humans, adapt to their surroundings. Each of the twelve 55-minute episodes (one fewer than his previous series) featured a different environment. The executive producer was Richard Brock and the music was composed by Elizabeth Parker of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Title designer Margaret Perry worked with a typeface that hasn’t come up here before: it’s Ageratum, a serifless roman – or calligraphic sans – with distinct contrast, flared stems, and large x-height. It was issued in the 1970s for phototypesetting by Headliners. I haven’t found out the name of its designer yet. The name of the typeface is, quite fittingly, derived from the natural world: Ageratum is a genus of flowering plants in the Asteraceae family, and better known in the United States as whiteweed.

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FontsInUse

An independent archive of typography.