A while back, when my research of the Funny Girl logo landed me in the world of vintage movie posters, I was struck by the prevalent use of duotone in posters of the late 1960s and early 1970s. I don’t quite know what the reason was for the trend--there were four-color posters as far back as Birth of a Nation. And it wasn’t just for low-budget movies with lines like “Leaves nothing to the imagination” (Negatives) and ”She uses men like pep-up pills” (Stolen Hours). The poster for Bergman’s Persona was duotone, as was the one for Rosemary’s Baby.
I’m thinking it had something to do with the transition from illustration to photography, as the artwork of preference, but I’d be very interested to find out the real reason, from some one out there in-the-know.
