Hand painted garden gate in rural Southwest Pennsylvania, with letterforms modeled after Luminari. Released by Canada Type in 2008, Philip Bouwsma’s typeface is –

an amalgam of High Middle Ages writing, a blend that combines the ornate Church hands with the simple Carolingian from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. Its majuscules are particularly influenced by the versals found in the famous Monmouth psalters, as well as those done by the Ramsey Abbey abbots in the twelfth century. The minuscules also exhibit some influence from the book hand of prolific humanist Poggio Bracciolini from the early fifteenth century. Italian and essentially romanesque in style, Luminari exercises a slight tension between the round forms and the angular “gothic” styling.

This cover is for When the Fern Blossoms. The Wicked Witch Barbara, a delightful Russian children’s story by Vsevolod Kostrov, published by LitRes in 2016. It’s about a girl in a Russian village who doesn’t realize she’s a witch. Then she gets some training.

The cover shows her about to pluck a mythical fern-flower before the cock crows. It grants various things, but the price can be very high. The owl (in its grey coat) and the evil spirits would like to steal this flower from her.

The typography brings together the Cyrillic versions of New Zelek and ITC Studio Script.

Arkham Horror: Third Edition is a cooperative board game for one to six players who take on the roles of investigators trying to rid the world of eldritch beings known as Ancient Ones. Based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, players will have to gather clues, defeat terrifying monsters, and find tools and allies if they are to stand any chance of defeating the creatures that dwell just beyond the veil of our reality.

From the publisher's website, Fantasy Flight Games:

The year is 1926, and it is the height of the Roaring Twenties. Flappers dance till dawn in smoke-filled speakeasies, drinking alcohol supplied by rum runners and the mob. It’s a celebration to end all celebrations in the aftermath of the War to End All Wars.

Yet a dark shadow grows in the city of Arkham. Alien entities known as Ancient Ones lurk in the emptiness beyond space and time, writhing at the thresholds between worlds. Occult rituals must be stopped and alien creatures destroyed before the Ancient Ones make our world their ruined dominion.

Only a handful of investigators stand against the horror. Will they prevail?

The game logo is set in Birmingham. The numbers on the dice (2009) are set in Arnold Böcklin. The distressed font found in “Rulebook” and “DICE SET” is Ugly Qua by Manfred Klein. The “Call of Cthulu” logo is derived from Columbus.

When I picked this book up and started reading it, I was very impressed by the readability of the type (PMN Caecilia), and the layout of the entire book. Hugh Syme designed the cover featuring Mark Simonson’s Mostra, and Tania Craan did all the text design and typesetting.

From NeilPeart.net:

Whether navigating the backroads of Louisiana or Thuringia, exploring the snowy Quebec woods, or performing onstage at Rush concerts, Neil Peart has stories to tell. His first volume in this series, Far and Away, combined words and images to form an intimate, insightful narrative that won many readers.

Now Far and Near brings together reflections from another three years of an artist’s life as he travels roads and trails, receives honours, climbs mountains, composes and performs music, and celebrates seasons, landscapes, and characters. With passionate insight, wry humour, and an adventurous spirit, once again Peart offers a collection of open letters that take readers on the road, behind the scenes, and into the inner workings of an ever-inquisitive mind.

These popular stories, originally posted on Peart’s website, are now collected and contextualized with a new introduction and conclusion in this beautifully designed collector’s volume.

Rush.com:

Power Windows is the band’s 11th studio album, released in 1985. It was the first time the band worked with producer Peter Collins. The album was recorded at The Manor in England, AIR Studios in Montserrat and at Sarm East Studios in London.

Power Windows launched an era in which the band expanded into new sonic directions, and featured synths heavily. It was also the album where Geddy switched to using a Wal bass, made by a small English company. He’d use the Wal as his main bass all the way through the Roll The Bones album and tour. Neil’s lyrics focused primarily on various manifestations of power—“Manhattan Project” explores the origins and consequences of the U.S. military’s development of the atomic bomb, and “Territories” comments on nationalism around the world.

Incidentally, Power Windows was the first Rush album to ever be released directly to CD.

Caslon Open Face did not begin life as a member of the Caslon family, but was a typeface titled College Oldstyle by Barnhart Brothers and Spindler. See Printing is a Practical Educator in the School – Advertisement.

Rush.com:

Presto is Rush’s 13th studio album, released in 1989. It was recorded at Le Studio in Morin Heights and at McClear Place in Toronto. Presto was Rush’s first album with Atlantic Records, which the band signed to in early 1989 after a longstanding relationship with Mercury/PolyGram. It was co-produced by Rupert Hine, an English musician, songwriter and producer who had worked with Saga, The Fixx, Howard Jones, and Bob Geldof.

The album’s lyrical centerpiece is its atmospheric single ‘The Pass,’ in which Neil addresses teenage isolation and the tragic romanticism of youth suicide.

“All of us get lost in the darkness; dreamers learn to steer by the stars”

One strange quirk at the time was the fact that the first side of Presto was much longer than the second, forcing Rush to instruct fans to play the A side much louder to compensate for sound loss.

Rush.com:

All The World’s A Stage, Rush’s first live release, was recorded at Massey Hall in Toronto on June 11–13, 1976 during their 2112 tour (see Geddy talk about attending his first show at Massey Hall and the importance of the venue to the city). The two-record set presented the band’s hour-and-a-half headlining show in its entirety, a show that featured material from its first four Mercury releases: Rush, Fly by Night, Caress of Steel, and 2112 (the performance of “2112” omits the “Discovery” and “Oracle: The Dream” sections of the studio recording.)

During an interview in 1976, Neil said,

“When we play a piece live, we add all our little quirks to it. It grows; our older material shows a remarkable progression. Some of the old songs have developed until they’re superior to the originals. This gives us a chance to bring them up to date. We always felt there was something happening live that didn’t come across on record. Now we have the opportunity to capture that essence of the band.” – Neil Peart, 1976

Released as a single prior to the release of Clockwork Angels. It was available as CD during the Time Machine Tour.

The connected lettering for the album title was drawn based on chrome badges from 1950s Chevrolets, such as the BelAir. In 1998, Stuart Sandler of Font Diner has transformed and expanded the letterforms into a font named Permanent Waves.

Rush.com:

Permanent Waves is the band’s seventh studio album, released on January 14th, 1980. It was recorded at Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec, and mixed at Trident Studios in London. The tracks were laid down just shy of four weeks, in part attributed to the idyllic working conditions of Morin Heights.

The album marks a transition from long, conceptual pieces, into a more accessible, radio-friendly style. “The Spirit Of Radio” is one of the most commercial songs Rush has ever produced, containing several different musical elements, even a touch of reggae. At the time, Alex recalled:

“We’ve always played around with reggae in the studio and we used to do a reggae intro to Working Man onstage, so when it came to doing Spirit Of Radio we just thought we’d do the reggae bit to make us smile and have a little fun.”

The waving man in the background of the album cover is actually Hugh Syme, the band’s long time design collaborator.

Rush.com:

A Farewell To Kings was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, and mixed at Advision Studios in London. The album took three weeks to record and two weeks to mix. It was the band’s Rush’s first US gold-selling album, receiving the certification within two months of its release, and was eventually certified platinum. The band was happy with how it turned out. Geddy recalled in 1978:

“It’s the only one of our albums apart from ‘2112‘ that I can really live with. I’ve yet to look at it and start finding fault with it, pick it apart, you know…it still sounds so positive.”

From Rush: Chemistry: The Definitive Biography (2005) by Jon Collins:

Rush artist Hugh Syme had previously played keyboards in The Ian Thomas band, whose guitarist, Josh Anderson, was called on to be the “puppet king” for the A Farewell To Kings album cover by RUSH.

“He was really a rake of a man, really, really thin and he was perfect for the part. He had a beautifully receding forehead already and all I had to do was go and retouch his mouth, shoulder and knee joints to appear mannequin-like.” — Hugh Syme.

Rush.com:

What can you say? Moving Pictures became the band’s biggest selling album in the U.S., rising to #3 on the Billboard charts. It remains Rush’s most popular and commercially successful studio recording. Rush’s complex songwriting and musical virtuosity reached new heights on this album.

Recorded and mixed from October to November 1980 at Le Studio, Moving Pictures followed a more radio-friendly format and includes several signature tracks, including “Tom Sawyer,” “Limelight,” “Red Barchetta,” and the band’s highly praised instrumental, “YYZ,” which is the IATA airport identification code of Toronto Pearson International Airport.

The album cover is a monument to triple entendre. Movers are physically moving pictures, people are crying because the pictures passing by are emotionally “moving,” and the back cover depicts a film crew making a “moving picture” of the whole scene.

Rush.com:

Counterparts is the band’s 15th studio album, released on October 19, 1993.

Counterparts shows Rush returning to its guitar/bass/drum foundation, and becoming less dependent on synths and technology. This can be heard throughout, from the songwriting, to the performance, to the production. Counterparts also marks the return of co-producer Peter Collins, who produced Power Windows and Hold Your Fire before Rupert Hine stepped in and co-produced Presto and Roll The Bones.

The term ‘counterparts’ is described as both “duplicate” and “opposite” – a definition that so intrigued Neil that he contemplated to himself:

“…considered in this way, contraries are reflections of each other, and not necessarily contradictions.”

Instrumental track “Leave That Thing Alone” earned a Grammy nomination for “Best Instrumental”.

Rush.com:

Celebrating a career of filling arenas, selling tens of millions of albums and playing songs with which a generation of rock fans came of age, the boys decided to have a little fun with the music they grew up with. Feedback is an EP of cover tunes, released in 2004. It features covers of songs by The Who, The Yardbirds, Love, Cream, Buffalo Springfield and more.

The album marked the 30th anniversary of the release of Rush’s debut album.

Rush.com:

Test for Echo is the band’s 16th studio album. It was recorded from January-March 1996 at the legendary Bearsville Studios in New York state (now defunct) and at Reaction Studios (also defunct) in Toronto in April 1996.

The band returned after nearly a two-year hiatus with a power and ferocity that rivals some of their earliest material. From the metallic feel of the title track, to the driving force behind “Driven” and the heavy feel of “Dog Years,” the guys beefed-up their sound and crafted a Rush record for the ’90s.

Neil recorded a majority of his drum tracks for the album using traditional grip, after receiving drum lessons from jazz instructor Freddie Gruber.

Hugh Syme, longtime designer of Rush albums, often makes interesting type choices and modifications. This stretching of Centaur’s swash ‘R’ is not one of the better ones.

The font in use is Mark Simonson’s original Mostra (2001). Mostra Nuova, an extended version with more weights, better language support, and lowercase letters was introduced in 2009.

Art direction by Hugh Syme. Cover painting by Harish Johari.

Rush.com:

Snakes & Arrows is Rush’s 18th full-length studio album and their first studio outing since 2004’s Feedback. It was also the band’s first complete studio album since Vapor Trails in 2002. It was recorded between November and December 2006 at Allaire Studios in New York’s Catskill Mountains and mixed and mastered at Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles.

The album was co-produced with Grammy Award-winner Nick Raskulinecz. Snakes & Arrows was the first time the band worked with Nick. It was completed months ahead of schedule, and as Alex recalled:

“We had access to two studios and nothing else to do at night.”

The studio’s very remoteness and a realized sense of harmony, spurred on the band to new creative heights.

Rush.com:

Grace Under Pressure is the band’s 10th studio recording, released in April of 1984. It was recorded at Le Studio, like so many other Rush albums. Rush originally approached producer Steve Lillywhite to record Grace Under Pressure, but he went on to work on other projects. The band produced the album themselves, with assistance from Peter Henderson, who had previously worked with Supertramp, Split Enz, Frank Zappa, and King Crimson.

Largely considered one of the band’s darkest albums, Grace Under Pressure was influenced by the growing tensions in the Cold War in the 1980s. The album’s running theme is “pressure” and how humans act under the influence of it. Despite the dark themes of the record, the band balances out influences from a lot of directions, including reggae and a harder feel of the classic hard rock sound.

The writing and rehearsing of the album went quickly, but the recording took a long time. Alex recalled:

“…once we got into the studio, things just took a long time. You can’t really help it sometimes, no matter how hard you work or how fast you work; there are certain things about recording that just take a long time.”

Rush.com:

Signals is the band’s ninth studio album, released in 1982. It was the follow-up to the (what would become) seminal Moving Pictures album.

Stylistically, the album was a continuation of Rush’s foray into the technology-oriented 1980s through increased use of electronic instrumentation such as keyboards, sequencers, and electric violin. The songs got shorter too. In fact, “New World Man” clocked in at a swift 3:42–it was the last and quickest-composed song on the album, written primarily to even out the lengths of the two sides of the cassette version. The opening track, “Subdivisions,” is a staple of many of the band’s tours since its recording.

Signals was the band’s last collaboration with producer Terry Brown, who had co-produced every Rush album since 1975’s Fly by Night, and had engineered the eponymous first album in 1974.

Rush.com:

Clockwork Angels is Rush’s 20th full-length studio album. It was recorded in April 2010 at Blackbird Studio in Nashville and from October to December 2011 at Revolution Recording in Toronto.

The record was produced with Grammy Award winner Nick Raskulinecz, with whom the guys collaborated on their 2007 studio album, Snakes and Arrows.

Lyrically, Clockwork Angels chronicles a young man’s quest across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy as he attempts to follow his dreams. The story features lost cities, pirates, anarchists, exotic carnival, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life.

Science fiction novelist Kevin J. Anderson, a long time friend of Neil, wrote a novelization of Clockwork Angels, which was released in September of 2012.