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Banjo-Kazooie logo and interfaces

Contributed by Antonia Taylor on Feb 12th, 2023. Artwork published in
June 1998
.
Banjo-Kazooie logo and interfaces 1
Microsoft Corporation. License: All Rights Reserved.

From Wikipedia:

Banjo-Kazooie is a series of video games developed by Rare. The games feature a male bear named Banjo and his friend, a large female red bird named Kazooie, who are both controlled by the player. Banjo originally made his debut as a playable character in 1997 as part of the cast of Diddy Kong Racing. Throughout the various games, they are tasked with thwarting the various evil schemes of a witch named Gruntilda. The first game, Banjo-Kazooie, was released in 1998 to critical acclaim and was followed by three sequels and a spin-off racing game.

Lithos is used for the series’ logo, the Game Over screen, numerals in the user interface, and textures for in-game signs. Lithos was designed by Carol Twombly and released by Adobe in 1989.

In-game dialogue and the user interface use the typeface Comicrazy. Comicrazy was designed by John Roshell and Richard Starkings and released in 1995 by Comicraft.

In the original Nintendo 64 release and the Switch Online emulated version of the first game, copyright information on the game’s title screen uses Lithos. In Xbox rereleases, Comicrazy is used instead.

Lithos font identification information from Wikipedia. Comicrazy font identification information from @DiaFriend.

Banjo-Kazooie logo and interfaces 2
Source: www.mobygames.com Microsoft Corporation. License: All Rights Reserved.
Banjo-Kazooie logo and interfaces 3
Source: www.mobygames.com Microsoft Corporation. License: All Rights Reserved.
Banjo-Kazooie logo and interfaces 4
Microsoft Corporation. License: All Rights Reserved.
Banjo-Kazooie logo and interfaces 5
Source: www.mobygames.com Microsoft Corporation. License: All Rights Reserved.

Typefaces

  • Lithos
  • Comicrazy
  • Andy

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2 Comments on “Banjo-Kazooie logo and interfaces”

  1. A minor correction. In Xbox rereleases, Andy is used in place of both Lithos (copyright on title screen) and Comicrazy. This was also the case with the Banjo-Tooie rerelease and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. There was a bit of hoo-ha about it at the time as Andy is not the easiest font to read and, since the release of the original game in 1998, Comicrazy had been burned into the minds of players as the typographic voice of the Banjo-Kazooie series. Due to the hoo-ha, Nuts & Bolts eventually replaced Andy with Comic Sans which, whilst easier to read, is no Comicrazy. Sadly, it seems the Xbox rereleases of Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie are stuck with Andy.

  2. Thanks, Patrick. I’ve added Andy to the typeface credits.

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