Moondog & Moondog 2 album art

Contributed by Stephen Coles on Jan 23rd, 2015. Artwork published in

1969

Moondog & Moondog 2 album art 1 — License: All Rights Reserved.

I was struggling to find the typeface used for this album art, and was about to assume it to be one-off lettering when I stumbled on Coro Moon in Photo-Lettering’s One Line Manual of Styles (1971). Typeface names prefixed with the designer’s last name were common in the PLINC library, though in this case it could be that the font was not by Columbia Records designer Ron Coro, but made for him. The name also indicates that it was developed specifically for this project. These are only guesses, but PLINC frequently supplied the type for Columbia in the 1960s–70s, including many sleeves by Coro and John Berg.

Type aside, Moondog (born Louis Thomas Hardin) is a fascinating story in his own right, and I advise getting to know him and his work. A documentary film about his life is currently in production.

Moondog & Moondog 2 album art 2 — **Source: www.pinterest.com** License: All Rights Reserved.

Moondog & Moondog 2 album art 3 — **Source: www.discogs.com** License: All Rights Reserved.

Moondog & Moondog 2 album art 4 — **Source: www.discogs.com** License: All Rights Reserved.

Moondog & Moondog 2 album art 5 — **Source: fr-moondog.com** License: All Rights Reserved.

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Album Art (3648)

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Music (5518)

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Ron Coro (7)
Teresa Alfieri (3)

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work (Juliana Linder) (14)
Original Use (Florian Hardwig) (302)
Popular Uses / Uncommon Type (Stephen Coles) (17)
Photo-Lettering, Inc. (Florian Hardwig) (465)
New Music (Joe Shriner) (34)
Designs by Women (Fonts In Use Staff) (2854)
_st (GareyAdey) (75)
rounded (Lucas Bevilaqua) (52)

2 Comments on “Moondog & Moondog 2 album art”

Cave Grove says:
Jan 23rd, 2015 6:42 am

So cool! This one stumped me, too. Glad to finally know the origin!
Stephen Coles says:
Aug 8th, 2018 12:12 am

A message from the man, Ron Coro, himself:

Yes, I originally designed Coro Moon for the Moondog Album covers when I was assistant art director at CBS Columbia Records in New York. I still have the original inked alphabet. Really, I do. When it was used in an outline form I had our production department ink it. I had made a deal with Photo-Lettering, (when it existed) for usage by the word.

Too long ago to remember the deal. I think $5.00 a word? My lettering teacher at the School of Visual Arts in NYC was Ed Benguiat one of the founders and designers at Photo-Lettering. It was easy to make the deal with Ed.

I spent ten years glorious years at CBS Columbia Records, with John Berg, finally working my way up to Art Director, West Coast LA in 1972 when I was 27 years old. From there, I went on to Elektra/Asylum.

I’m 72 now and have been retired ten years.