Wicked Font: The Film’s Opening Title and Custom Lettering Process

In Alex Vadukul’s original interview, republished by the Post-Tribune from The New York Times, Teddy Blanks identifies his work on the large Wicked: Part 1 opening title. He says its design partly drew on chapter lettering in L. Frank Baum’s first Oz book. CHIPS separately lists Wicked among its 2024 film-title projects. This scope is narrower than identifying the Broadway wordmark or every promotional asset.

Blanks describes exploring roughly twenty versions of W with director Jon M. Chu to settle its serifs and curves. That is evidence of a bespoke title-design process. It does not identify a public retail alphabet that will reproduce the finished title by typing arbitrary text. A complete font, a single drawn word and a title image placed over footage are distinct production resources.

Write your own title and identify the letters that define its silhouette. Try a few deliberate changes to the opening capital while keeping the remaining word stable. Compare the title at the size and background where it will appear, not only against a blank page. Leave enough room for decorative serifs and keep a subtitle clearly subordinate. Retain the simplest version that communicates the intended atmosphere.

Cinzel, Cormorant Garamond and Source Serif 4 are independent specimens, not the Wicked title alphabet or exact replacements. Compare your own wording to explore different capital proportions and supporting-copy relationships. Keep any custom drawing separate from the underlying font specification. If an opening title needs a final image treatment, preserve both the editable composition and its export so later revisions do not depend on reconstructing a flattened graphic.