Title page with lettering by Simons

Hand-pressed by the Bremer Presse in 1924, this edition of The City of God is reckoned by Albert Kapr (in his Buchgestaltung) to be “one of the most beautiful books of our century,” taking advantage of Bremer Antiqua’s many alternates to achieve a “perfect evenness of color.” The titles and initials are by Anna Simons.

Detail from the index capitvm for the first book

Chapter opening of the first book, with a drop cap that spans eight lines

The drop cap starting the second book has a height of five lines.

The colophon mentions philologist Carl Weyman (1862–1931) who oversaw this edition. “Three hundred and eighty-five copies were issued, of which this one has the number 95.”

A collection culled and translated from Gramsci’s Quaderni del Carcere (Prison Notebooks; link in English), Cronache torinesi (Turin Chronicles), and La città futura (The Future City; link in Italian) printed in the German Democratic Republic.

The cover of the original German edition of Aras Ören’s book-length poem, considered the first work of literature to address the Turkish experience in Germany, Was will Niyazi in der Naunynstraße (“What does Niyazi want on Naunyn Street”), set in Caslon Old Face Heavy. No designer is credited, but the template was used on other Rotbuch Verlag titles.

Why Berlin locksmith Edgar Klang (among other Berlin businesses) chose an American blackletter for his shop is a mystery, but American Text does convey a certain key-ness, or?

A now-closed fashion boutique on Berlin-Neukölln's Karl-Marx-Straße, whose logotype appears to be a sloppy tracing of Via Face Don with improvised diacritics.

The front cover of Anne Waldman’s Fast Speaking Woman & Other Chants, part of City Lights’ Pocket Poets series, with text set in Yagi Link Double.

Photo by Sheyla Baykal

The title is set in Colonia.

From Wikipedia:

Tenebrae (lit. “darkness”, also known as Tenebre) is a 1982 Italian giallo film written and directed by Dario Argento. The film stars Anthony Franciosa as American author Peter Neal, who – while in Rome promoting his latest murder-mystery novel – becomes embroiled in the search for a serial killer who may have been inspired to kill by his novel.

The opening narration (preceding the title) follows the text of the fictional novel, Tenebrae: “The impulse had become irresistible. There was only one answer to the fury that tortured him. And so he committed his first act of murder. He had broken the most deep-rooted taboo, and found not guilt, not anxiety or fear, but freedom. Any humiliation which stood in his way could be swept aside by the simple act of annihilation: Murder.” which is set in Life.

The English and Italian versions are typographically identical. Comparison made by Muck47 for Movie-Censorship.com.

Music credits (to three of the four original members of Goblin)

The Sigma Cinematografica logotype is set in Recta, with the sigma (Σ) itself being set in an unknown font, if not hand-drawn.

Hubertus Foerster’s German translation of Georges Arnaud/Henri Girard’s Le Salaire de la Peur (The Wages of Fear), the basis of both Henri-Georges Clouzot’s film of the same name and William Friedkin’s Sorceror, published by (East) Berlin’s Verlag Tribüne.

The illustration is by Klaus Vonderwerth and the printing performed by the Grafischer Großbetrieb Völkerfreundschaft Dresden, but no designer is credited. The title and author are set in Maxima, the logotype of the series uses the a from Motter Ombra.

The same illustration was used already in 1979, with different typography. The cover design with Maxima and Ombra was introduced in 1981 (the shown copy is from 1985).

A 7″ record that accompanied an issue of Organorama, Organon Pharmaceuticals' journal of medicine (and culture?), featuring excerpts from a complete recording of the Rite of Saba composed by Dede Efendi, apparently intended to educate Turkish physicians in the arts of the Mevlevi order. The title is set in Linear. The line in Ottoman Turkish rendered in the Arabic script is calligraphy, not type.

[More info on Discogs]

A poster for a concert by US-based Czech composer Petr Kotik, organized and performed by Budapest’s 180-as Csoport (Group 180). The titles are set in a mix of Maxima and Futura, apparently with numerals from Helvetica. There are also two widths of Univers in use. The logo of the concert hall, Petőfi Csarnok, uses ITC Benguiat with EndcapS.

Müşerref Akay (b. 1952) is a Turkish singer and actress. When this album titled Altın Seri 79 (“Gold Series 79”) was released in 1979, she went by the name of her then husband, Tezcan.

Mecanorma’s dry transfer sheets for Neo Prisma didn’t include any diacritics. The dots for Ü and Ş were added manually. “Altın Seri” is added in another Mecanorma original, the lowercase-only Paperclip.

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The undated cover of an exhibition catalogue featuring a text-based work using Akzidenz Grotesk by an uncredited Spanish artist. The designer, Abdulkader Arnaout, makes creative and fairly convincing use of Eurostile for the Arabic as well as the Spanish title. The exhibit was presented by the Syrian Fine Arts Administration (مديرية الفنون الجميلة)—for whom Arnaout designed a logo featuring a font I would love identified—and the Ministry of Culture and National Guidance (وزارة الثقافة والارشاد القومي), the names of both agencies being rendered in an unidentified font.

A promotional poster for a 1977 tour by German folk groups Zupfgeigenhansel and Liederjan. Volkslieder (folksongs) was the name of Zupfgeigenhansel album which also featured the engraving on the poster. “Volkslieder” is set in Primitive and the groups’ names and further information are set in ITC Avant Garde Gothic with its alternate e.

An Industrial Records (logo seen at bottom right) promotional poster featuring Throbbing Gristle's Cosey Fanni Tutti. "Cosey Fanni Tutti" is set in Capone, "of Throbbing Gristle" in Futura.

The poster was printed at London’s Walkerprint, but no designer is credited. It’s difficult to see here but from other examples the Walkerprint logotype appears to use Pump.

A poster for Hungarian ensemble Group 180’s performance of Terry Riley’s (at the time) complete works, designed by one of the performers, composer Béla Faragó.

The “wanted” poster-style heading (perhaps the Old West was a Hungarian audience’s nearest point of reference to Riley’s home of California?) is set in Stencil, the subheading in Univers Condensed Italic, and the date and venue set in a mix of Eurostile [or rather Microgramma, see comments] Bold Extended (numbers) and ITC American Typewriter (letters). A close look suggests creative solutions for missing letters were called for.

The image of Riley is the cover of his LP Happy Ending, which uses hand-drawn bubble lettering along the lines of West Bubble Gum, Kabel, and what appears to be Unicorn Open.

A guide for Seventh-Day Adventists struggling with the health craze of the mid-1970s. The importance of healthy habits is acknowledged, “but too much attention to health can be a form of idol (false god) worship that gets in the way of a satisfying relationship with God.”

Author J. Robert Spangler and designer Helcio Deslandes both worked for the magazine Ministry: International Journal for Clergy. The title is set in Sans Shaded and the authors’ names in Helvetica.

A rare example of an Arabic logo being adapted to Latin, for the cover of Ahmed el-Maanouni's documentary on the legendary Moroccan band Nass el-Ghiwane. The filmmaker's name (احمد المعنوني) and the film's Arabic title (الحال) are set in the Maghrebi-style SF Mabsut, paying tribute to Morocco’s unique calligraphic heritage. “A film by Ahmed el Maanouni” is set in a font that strongly resembles but seemingly is not Nassim extrabold.

The logo (the band's name in Arabic, ناس الغيوان, seen here in action on a 1972 single) is matched to an appropriately early-1970s synthesis on the Zipper/Sintex continuum.

A confusing discographic entry from two giants of Egyptian popular music, Hamid al-Shaeri and Ahmed Adeweya – a mishmash of the artists' respective 1991 albums Shaebiat Birwiya and Adaweya 91.

Both artists names (al-Shaeri’s in yellow, Adaweya’s in red) are set in Ibi, with some of the dots (below the rightmost ي and above ش) having been taken from elsewhere. This is not the font (or photo) used on the original Adaweya 91 album, although it is used on his earlier Zahma. Al-Shaeri’s side uses the original artwork. شعبيات appears to be handwritten, بروية set in Al-Harf al-Jadid I. The Sout el-Hob logotype resembles many Kufic fonts but is most likely handwritten; Digital Press Hellas uses Compacta.

[More info on Discogs]

The 4th LP from the mighty bluegrass gospel duo of Hubert and Jeanette Cooke (Hubert, incidentally, is the brother of Clinch Mountain Boys’ Jack Cooke), appearing here with their son James on bass, pressed by Rite Records. The striking cover art was stock, used on many other privately-funded ventures. No designer is credited. “Stereo” is set in Playbill, the titles in Univers Condensed Bold Italic.

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The CD version of the first album by Egyptian sha3bi star Abdel Hakim Abdel Samad Kamel, known mononymously as Hakim. Name and title are set in all-caps Mistral. It’s cut off in this photo, but to the side it reads “Produced in Egypt by Sonar” with the Sonar logotype set in Dubbeldik (the gray S logo in the bottom right may use a custom 4-line variant?), seen more clearly below. Slam! Records was a sublabel of Sonar, Ltd. Jeel music (موسيقى الجيل in Arabic, seen just below the photo in black) is both a description of the kind of music and seemingly a Slam! series (another example here). “Slam!” is in Deutsch Black, while “Jeel Music” pairs Desdemona Solid with Linear. “Stereo” is in caps from Gill Sans, and the track list in Helvetica. The Arabic fonts are unidentified.

[More info on Discogs]