The Muppet Show Book was published in 1978 by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. The book adapts material from the first two seasons of The Muppet Show, with illustrations by Tudor Banus.

The main text font used throughout the book is ITC Souvenir. The characters’ names and initials are each set in a unique font, see the image captions for details. A few minor characters’ names are in ITC Souvenir.

“Introduction” is in the roman style of Bookman Swash. The character-specific fonts are Art Gothic for Kermit the Frog; Sweetheart for Miss Piggy; Yagi Link Double for Sgt. Floyd Pepper; Benguiat Laurent (with Psychemat effect) for Dr. Teeth [edit: rather Bullseye, a copy of PLINC Capricorn, see comments]; ITC Neon for Zoot; Crayonette for Janice; and Shatter for Animal.

Second page of the introduction, ft. Interline for Statler & Waldorf (without the pattern fill in Statler’s case); Scorpio/Hoopla for Fozzie Bear; and Burst Caps for Crazy Harry. The sound effects (“BANG”, “HA HA HA …”) are in caps from Caslon No. 471/540 or similar.

ITC Bookman Demi with swash caps

“THE NEW GO-FER” is in Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed.

An outline version of Cooper Black is used for Scooter and Hobo for George the Janitor.

Reward poster for Kid Fozzie, ft. Figaro

The typeface chosen for Rowlf is Reklameschrift Secession.

Moore Computer features for Kermit’s robot doppelgänger.

“GONZO THE GREAT” uses more of the aforementioned Caslon caps. The character font is Lydia.

Sam the Eagle is presented in a chromatic setting of Stripes Caps.

Cloud Bank for Dr. Julius Strangepork and Countdown for Captain Link Hogthrob

The initial I is from Thunderbird.

The initial S is unidentified.

Microgramma Condensed is used for Nigel

The formal script used for “The Lives and Loves of Gonzo the Great” is Typo Script Extended.

Round Rosie is the font used for Vincent Price’s initials … 

… and Smoke is the one chosen for Uncle Deadly.

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew is set in Gemini.

Filmotype Pixie was spec’d for Hilda.

Another Bookman Swash

Manuscript Capitals for “Bein’ Green”

The P from Mira identifies Koozebanian Phoob.

Chianti is used for Robin.

Kermit the Pig is in an unidentified font similar to Rubens and Duerer.

Playbill is used for J.P. Grosse. On this page, the o’s in Scooter’s name are altered to look like his glasses.

The Cottrell & Babcock Manufacturing Company was founded in 1855 in Stonington, Connecticut. In 1880, Nathan Babcock purchased the shares of co-founder Calvert Cottrell and set up a new printing press manufactory together with his nephew George Fenner. Renamed the Babcock Printing Press Manufacturing Company, it was moved to New London. Around 1886, Babcock introduced the two-revolution “Optimus” press. From Steve Fithian’s 2024 article for Otis Library:

The Optimus became the new industry standard for the production of high quality printing. Harper & Bros. of New York used the Optimus exclusively to print their popular and influential periodicals, Harpers Weekly and Harper’s Monthly magazine. By 1899, the company’s strong commercial success allowed for the expansion of the employee base to 250 men occupying 180,000 square feet of factory floor. During the period between 1883 and 1919, the company sold over 7,000 printing presses to businesses in every state of the Union with a global market that included Canada, Mexico, Europe and parts of Asia.

In their Handy Book of Artistic Printing from 2009, Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas date the advertising card shown above to 1886. All the linework—including curves—were done up in brass rules, along with the metal type fleurons and dingbats. The main typefaces are Mother Hubbard (1885) for “‘Optimus’ Press” and “New York Office” and Latin Condensed (1873) with initials from Ideal (1884) for “The Babcock Printing Press Mfg. Company”. The then freshly introduced Art Gothic (1886) is used with caps from Mother Hubbard for “Drum Cylinder”, “Stop Cylinder” and “Two Revolution”. “Lithographic” and the New York address are set in Old Style Extended (by 1884). There are a couple of unidentified typefaces, including a generic gothic. The inclined sans probably is Gothic Italic (see Halbfette Cursiv-Grotesque).

The colored card shown below followed in 1887. Its design also features Mother Hubbard. The wide typeface used for “Babcock” and, in mixed case, for “Drum Cylinder / Stop Cylinder / Two-Revolution / Lithographic” is Bowl, shown by Farmer the same year.

For both cards A. J. Smith was the compositor, with the printing firm of John P. Smith in Rochester, NY.

From the website of Kate Wolf’s estate:

This double album is a retrospective of Kate’s studio recordings featuring many of her favorites. When Kate became ill, she began compiling this collection and finished it just before she became unable to work. Kate selected all the songs and photographs, and wrote the notes for the cover. Unfortunately, her passing came a month before the album's release.

The artist’s name and the title are set in Advertisers Gothic with “A Retrospective Of Recordings 1975 – 1985” in Palatino.

[More info on Discogs]

Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? is a British musical film from 1969. Anthony Newley (1931–1999) co-wrote the script, served as director, played the lead role, and composed the score. From Adam White’s 2017 article for the Telegraph:

Famed at the time for its ludicrously unwieldy title, 1969’s Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? is a surrealist sex-drenched disaster that could only ever have been made in the more free-wheeling Sixties. Released to significant controversy for Universal Pictures and given an X rating, it was dubbed “an act of professional suicide” by the New York Times.

The cover of the soundtrack album by Kapp Records is an adaptation of the movie poster, with illustration is by Robert Tanenbaum. It uses typefaces that all were available from Californian phototype company Lettergraphics. Most of the text is set in various widths and weights of Microgramma – at Lettergraphics, Microgramma and Eurostyle [sic!] were distinguished solely by whether the font was all caps or had a lowercase, without differences in the design. The title is a potpourri of Sans Shaded, Bodidot Flair (a copy of Pistilli Roman, with swashes), a generic sans in italic caps and small caps, Windsor Contour, Torena Italic Flair, Holiday, Groovy, and Gras Serrés Italique.

Byte magazine, issue #4, December 1975

Bill Godbout was something of a pioneer in the early microcomputer movement of the 1970s, and his firm Bill Godbout Electronics was a commercial vehicle selling discount and surplus electronics and microcomputer components. Bill Godbout Electronics was a regular advertiser in the early issues of the seminal BYTE magazine. Issue #4 is the first Christmas issue and features a 2-pager from Bill Godbout Electronics that mixes a large number of fonts in a style typical of both this era and this advertiser.

“Bill Godbout Electronics” is in Wexford. I think the “CAVE grafix” is lettering, but the first word may be based on Koloss (see further below). “Wish you a joyous holiday season” and so in is in Davida. “If you are into toyful tinkering” and so on is in outlined Cooper Black.

“Son-of-a Cheap Clock” is in Tonight, and above it “We have a successor to our very popular ‘Cheap Clock Kit’!” is in Script (for the IBM Selectric; see also the body fonts, glossed below). The price, $14.50, is in Umbra. Both Script and Umbra are used on the following page.

Windsor is used for “they also make great gifts” (on the curve) and the following text. “Electronic Projects for Musicians” is Reklameschrift Herold. Below the decorative band, “EROM board special offer” is in Helvetica, outlined and with a South shadow.

“4K x 8 pre-programmed for 8080” is in an outline style of a somewhat Microgramma-like font that I couldn’t identify that is also used on the second page.

On the second page, “Bigger & Better” is in Skin & Bones (using two alternates for G, but not for E). “Pace 16 bit chip set” is in Koloss. “1 Pace 16 bit CPU” and other text on and under the curve is the previously mentioned and unidentified outline Microgramma-lookalike.

“Pace Data Packet” is Advertisers Gothic (using the A without a top flag). “4K x 8 RAM kit” is in Umbra. “EROM board kit” is in Rock Opera. The “8K x 8” and so on again is in Wexford. “There’s more ... We have” is in Monogram.

The body text (and some secondary and subtitle text) is typewritten in a variety of fonts, and I did a much better job of identifying those, all available on the IBM Selectric:

On the first page the text for the clock, starting “BIGGER DIGITS” is in Artisan. “By Craig Anderton” (the author of “Electronic Projects for Musicians”) is in Orator (probably, in any case Orator is used on the next page).

The text for the Craig Anderton blurb is Adjutant, I think. Delegate and Adjutant are very similar with only slight differences in weight and thick/thin contrast, but they have different pitches: Adjutant is 12 characters per inch, and is tighter than Delegate at 10. The text block at the bottom of the first page, starting “By special arrangement”, is in Bookface Academic.

On the second page, below “Pace 16 bit”, the text starting “This chip set gets you into PACE” is in Manifold. The word “PACE” itself is in another font (the Selectric had a feature where you could switch type-balls and still retain the cursor position), possibly Pica. Manifold is again used for the bottom paragraph starting “READOUTS, LEDS, TRANSISTORS”. Below “Pace Data Packet”, “Since we started advertising” is Orator. Below “4K x 8 RAM”, “Note the lower price” looks like Prestige Elite.

Below “EROM BOARD”, the text starting “Now you can stuff up to 8K” initially had me stumped, but I think I have tracked it down. The small caps in place of little letters, made me think of Orator, which it isn’t; the o is distinctly squaroid and reminded me of the output of the IBM lineprinters, such as the 1403. It turns out that the IBM Selectric has a typeball called AN3/360 which the 1972 brochure specifically says matches the AN3 style available on IBM’s lineprinters.

At the bottom of the second page, to the right of the wordmark, the payment and terms text starting “YOU MAY PLACE MASTERCHARGE® OR BANKAMERICARD® ORDERS” is in Script.

1983 album by Sly & Robbie and the Taxi Gang, released on their own Taxi Records.

The open letterforms casting a perspective shadow are from Alpha Sunrise, the dimensional style of Hiroshi Yamashita’s typeface family. “Taxi Gang” is in Letraset’s Revue. “Taxi Connection” appears to be Advertisers Gothic – also available from Letraset – with a custom C made from an O. The names of the Taxi Gang members on the side of the car are set in Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed.

In memory of Robbie (1953–2021) and Sly (1952–2026).

[More info on Discogs]

Arhoolie Records released this blues compilation in 1972, with songs by Roosevelt Holts and his friends, namely Boogie Bill Webb, Eli Owens, Blind Pete Burrell, and Esau Weary. Of the eleven tracks, all but one were recorded August 1970, in Bogalusa, Clifton, and New Orleans.

The cover design is by Wayne Pope, with photography and liner notes by David Evans. The top-heavy typeface he picked for the title is Secession, which originated around 1900 at the Scholz foundry in Vienna. This provenience shines through in the capital H – it uses the enlarged lowercase form with top bar as found in blackletter typefaces.

[More info on Discogs]

Ad in LIFE magazine, October 11, 1968

New imaginative styles by Peter Max. Three wild designs to choose from. Repeat alarm wakes you – lets you snooze – then awakes you again. Daring and decorative – great gift.

Every time I come across a Peter Max work, whether it’s a pair of jeans (ad) or the cover of his own magazine—my eyes literally overdose on all the colors and swirling forms. Peter Max is not just another “hippie” artist, rather he’s a kind, caring and loving person who’s influenced a whole generation of artists and people abroad. Even if his name has never crossed your eyes or ears, you’ve probably seen his art somewhere. So many others around the world admire Max and his artwork, although these days it absolutely breaks my heart to see how others treat him in his current state.

Let's move on to something lighter… literally!

From 1968 to 1970, Peter Max was commissioned to design clocks and a poster for General Electric. The poster, advertising some absolutely wonderful wall clocks is set in Millstein Orientale for “New from General Electric” and below, with some Helvetica for the tinier text.

Moving on to the 1970 Snooz-Alarm clocks advertisement which shows Norton Futuramic, a Photo-Lettering face that was issued in the 1940s, paired with Obese E, a Psychedelitype (link two) released in 1967—note that this wouldn’t be the first or last time Obese would be used in Max’s work. Jefferson Aeroplane appears for the Symmetry clock, and Davison Arabesque for the Spectrum clock. Aura is just Futuramic, repeated, and below the three is presented in Futura for the price and bold words, Bodoni for the quoted text.

The actual Symmetry clock uses an illustrated form of Obese, Spectrum uses Art Nouveau-esque numericals not unlike Benguiat Laurent, and the Aura clock uses custom numerals not specific to any phototype… but still looks rad anyway!

Ad in Courier Journal, March 22, 1970

Symmetry

Spectrum

Aura (black version)

Flower Girl

Posters for Sergio Leone’s epic 1968 spaghetti Western, with spectacular cover art by Frank McCarthy. The names of the actors are shown in bichromatic Sans Serif Shaded while the tagline is set in Goudy Heavyface.

There were three men in her life. One to take her… one to love her—and one to kill her.

In memoriam Claudia Cardinale. The Italian actor died last week at the age of 87.

Half Sheet (22″×28″)

For this Australian Daybill (13″×30″) poster, the text was drawn by hand. The letterforms are clearly based on Goudy Heavyface and Sans Serif Shaded.

A flawless LTypI featuring PLINC’s Tension, for Bantam’s paperback edition of Pre-Menstrual Tension. Written by Judy Lever with Michael G. Brush, the book was designed by Roberta Rezk and first published by the McGraw-Hill Book Company in 1981. Secondary text is in all-caps ITC Tiffany.

The title page of he hardback edition is set in ITC Souvenir Bold, with initials from Thorowgood Sans Shaded.

Sheet from a Spanish calendar for the year 1915, with an advert for a light bulb. The text reads (translated):

The most solid and most economical metal filament lamp is the ‘Metal’ T. / Unbreakable drawn filament / Ask for it everywhere.

Both typefaces have roots in Germany. Kleukens-Antiqua is a so-called Künstlerschrift (“artist’s typeface”), first cast by Bauer in 1910 after drawings by Friedrich W. Kleukens and named after its author. It’s here used in the halbfett (bold) weight.

The all-caps Jugendstil sans used for the two lines at the top is Künstler-Grotesk from 1901, also from Bauer. An “artist’s grotesk” in name, it’s in fact an anonymous design created in-house in Frankfurt/Main. The type probably originated at Neufville, Bauer’s subsidiary in Barcelona.

Beach Boys’ Party! is a 1965 album by The Beach Boys, released on Capitol Records. The album features informal, acoustic-style covers of popular songs, including “Barbara Ann”, “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”, and “Devoted to You”, presented as a casual, sing-along gathering.

The cover design is uncredited but was most likely produced by Capitol Records’ in-house art department. It uses Sans Shaded for the main title and Ameristile for the "fan photos" text. The small text at the top, “Recorded ‘live’ at a”, is in Folio.

[More info on Discogs]

Every year the music blog New Commute asks graphic designers from all over the world to make some artwork depicting their top five albums released in the passing year. For this project, I scanned in some of my personal matchbook collection to rework my favorite albums into fake, long forgotten matchbooks. Using a wide array of my personal favorite typefaces from across eras I was able to put together this depiction of my favorite albums.

These posters were designed by Zdeněk Vlach for a 1989 Czechoslovak release of the 1976 King Kong film directed by John Guillermin. The title type is Reklameschrift Herold, which we’ve seen in use for creepy purposes before, in Hellbore magazine.

Vlach (1942–1999) studied at the Art School in Prague, but didn’t graduate. He nevertheless embarked on a career as graphic artist, illustrator, and film and set designer. Between 1970 and 1989, he created 203 movie posters. [ART+]

The small print on this DIN A4 mini poster combines the bold weight of Universal Grotesk for John Guillermin’s name with Super-Grotesk.

The cover features Romanisch (two weights) and Eckmann. The latter is used with the long s (ſ in “Nebst”), the former isn’t (in “seine”).

This guide to Trier and the surrounding area was issued in 1905 by Heinrich Stephanus. The local publisher and book seller was established in 1878 and still is in business today. The cover and the title page bring together a number of typefaces that were typical for the place and time. The building shown at the top right is the Porta Nigra, a city gate from Roman times.

C. F. DRURY for Latest POST CARDS

C.F. Drury was a printer and publisher in Southport, England, north of Liverpool. This advert for postcards was probably printed around 1900, based on the featured typefaces. Regina-Kursiv is the youngest of the four: it originated in 1895 at the Berthold foundry. It was also sold in the UK, including by James Marr and Co. in Edinburgh.

The Main Attraction were a pop rock band active in the late 1960s, consisting of Jeanne Salo, Gene Salo, George Bussotti, and Ronald Trale. Their sole album And Now the Main Attraction was released in 1968 on Tower Records, with a cover photo by Irv Bahrt. The uncredited typographer used a two-color setting of Thorowgood Sans Shaded a.k.a. Sans Serifs Shaded for the title. The track names are in Ultra Bodoni Extra Condensed.

[More info on Discogs]

A splendid little booklet issued by the British Transport Commission to support the exhibition of London Travel in the Nineteenth Century in 1953. This was held in the historic Shareholders’ Meeting Room at Euston station; the Commission thought that there was “no better way of making this Room accessible to the public” at the time but sadly, less than a decade later, this historic space along with the other major components of the Victorian station were bulldozed in an act of redevelopment that is still a conservation cause célèbre.

The booklet is beautiful typeset and printed by the Shenval Press who, at the time, were acknowledged as one of Britain’s finest printers. The layout and typography are very typical of the Commission’s careful ‘look’ that saw them take great care in the graphic design of their publications. The cover and title page are shown.

The title sequence used in Gaspar Noé’s Cannes-selected movie Enter the Void has amazed me over the years in terms of typography and graphic design, and thanks to a friend of mine, Puz, (some of) these fonts have been identified.

It was created by Tom Kan, a Japanese designer based in Paris. From Ian Albinson’s interview with Kan for Art of the Title:

The sequence is a typographer’s wet dream (or alternatively their nightmare). How were the various fonts and characters chosen?

The choice of typefaces came rather naturally. After coming up with a large selection in line with the film’s mood, we simply chose the ones that best suited the characters and the personalities of those in the team. Gaspar wanted each title to reflect the person it concerned. It was a beautiful homage and proof of his respect for the members of the team — a way to thank them.

Many typefaces and designs did not get used because the time limit was set — the sound mix was already done and it was impossible to extend. I think we used only 60% of the designs, all in all.

Every typeface used in the sequence seems to be a reference to other famous film title or poster fonts. What was the typeface you selected for your own credit and why?

We appropriated different typefaces, but we never wanted to copy the titles from other films in an obvious way since I thought that would be misleading. For my own credit, I went in many different directions: aged typefaces in metal, Kanji and Japanese calligraphy, techno typography… In the end, I let Gaspar choose and he went with the biggest, most legible type!

Watch the title sequence on YouTube, or right below (epilepsy/flashing lights warning):

Futura Extra Bold Condensed in all caps is the primary typeface for the credits. Here it’s used in combination with Kozuka Gothic for Japanese, alongside some logos.

Music credits include Egyptienne Medium Condensed, Garamond, Eurostile, Bodoni Condensed, Neue Helvetica 93, Futura, and Helvetica Condensed. It’s unclear if the LFO logo uses a font (Disco Deck is similar) or whether it’s custom drawn.

In addition to Futura Extra Bold Condensed, the logos of the production and distribution companies feature Euphoric (Wild Bunch) and Futura Extra Bold (Fidelité).

Producer credits feature FB Agency, Kozuka Gothic, ITC Machine, Futura Display, stretched and slanted Woodblock, and Antique Olive Nord

The names of the co-producers are set in Egyptienne Medium Condensed, Univers Ultra Condensed, Futura, an unidentified font similar to Crown Title, two unidentified stencil(ed) fonts, and Trajan.

More Egyptienne Medium Condensed for Suzanne Girard

Manager credits feature Haettenschweiler, Council, Neue Helvetica Extended (?), Clarendon, Pump Triline, Fiorello, Eurostile, Thorowgood Sans Shaded, and Futura Condensed.

The name of location manager Masahiro Hondo in Glaser Stencil serves as a mask.

Bank Gothic with rainbow glow effect for Lucio Tomaro

Photography credits with slanted Bank Gothic (Benoît Debie), bold italic City with added and extended top and baseline serifs (Gaspar Noé), TFAvian (Akira Kanno), outlined Futura (Yasushi Miyata), Bell Gothic (Jacques Bernier), and Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed (Yves Le Peillet)

Art credits featuring an unidentified blocky unicase face with 3D bevel effect similar to Mark (Marc Caro), FF Vortex (Kikuo Ohta), another unidentified blocky sans (Jean Carrière), and Zeppelin (Nicoletta Massone)

The dripping letters for Tony Crosbie appear to be custom(ized) – Shlop is a similar ready-made font.

Sound and editor credits with Eurostile (Ken Yasumoto), stretched Ironwood (Ryotaro Harada), contoured Nasalization (Claude Lahaye), an upright LCD typeface, probably Digital (Thomas Bangalter), a heavily modified Sonic or another font inspired by the Star Trek TNG logo (Lars Ginzel), Galledis with hyperextended lines (Gaspar Noé), modified SF Archery Black (Marc Boucrot), Zaius, a typeface family emulating the Planet of the Apes movie series logo (Jerome Pesnel), and ITC Machine (Pierre Buffin).

The fonts used for these cards include an unidentified inline face similar to Rubaiyat and Gothicum (Geoffroy Niquet), SF Archery Black (Yann de Cadoudal), OCR-A (Nicolas Delval), Mexcellent (Xavier Allard), fractured caps from a bold sans, possibly Compacta Black (Julien Aullas), Synchro (Bastien Laurent), Helvetica Rounded Bold Condensed (Anne-Sophie Bertrand), and an unidentified squarish sans similar to SB Carbon, Resistance Is Lowered or Apollo Rocket (Loris Paillier).

City Bold, slanted, with double contour and extended baseline serifs, for Tom Kan, Director of Typography

Gaspar Noé in outlined caps from Futura Extra Bold Condensed, without accent on the E

The blackletter typeface chosen for Lucile Hadžihalilović is Linotext (or Mariage, Wedding Text) with some modifications: e and c got bottom serifs and the swash in v was moved from the left to the right stem,

Paz de la Huerta gets various typographic treatments, including Eagle (in a weight between Bold and Black), Futura Dot with Citadel Script, outlined Egyptienne Bold Extended, and ITC Neon.

The Japanese transcription of Paz dela Huerta’s name (パス・デ・ラ・ウエルタ) appears to be Hiragino Maru Gothic or similar, with added contour.

Nathaniel Brown’s name is shown in Pump, ITC Bolt, Aachen, West Barnum Block filled with stars and stripes, and ITC Lubalin Graph Demi.

The fonts chosen for Cyril Roy include Aachen, American Text, Monotype Garamond, and at least two Japanese ones.

The MICR-inspired face used for Olly Alexander is handmade, as confirmed byo Tom Kan. Other fonts include Compacta and all-caps ITC Bolt.

The fonts used for Masato Tanno are Akzidenz-Grotesk Stencil and Ainsdale. The others are yet unidentified.

Gothicum and a (custom?) stencil version of Aachen for Ed Spear, Helvetica Rounded and Neue Helvetica 95 for Emily Alyn Lind, more Helvetica Rounded, an unidentified Japanese font, and Eagle for Jesse Kuhn and Nobu Imai

More ITC Neon and Helvetica Rounded for Sakiko Fukuhara. The bitmap font is 04b_08.

Sarah Stockbridge is set in Haettenschweiler with hyper-extended glyphs).

The names of Janice Sicotte-Beliveau and Stuart Miller are shown in Cooper Black, Impact Wide, Monterey and ITC Officina Serif, Braggadocio, Fiedler Gothic, and Blackoak.

Yemi Carol is presented in Impact Wide, Helvetica Rounded, and a Japanese Maru Gothic. The font shown at the bottom right is unidentified.

Several of the fonts used for Gaspar Noé’s name are yet unidentified. This includes alll fonts in the top row and the left one in the second row, which is similar to Moore Computer and Data 70. Other fonts include ITC Lubalin Graph, Futura Extra Bold Condensed, and Eagle.

The post-Second World War British “New Towns” had their genesis in early 20th century “Garden City” planning along with a growing sense during the 1930s that bolder steps to make better use of land, plan coherently for expansion and growth and manage the many problems of inner-city overcrowding and slum conditions were required. The 1944 Abercrombie Report into planning in Greater London suggested a series of satillite towns around London and in 1945 a New Towns Commission, under the chairmanship of Lord Reith, was announced.

In 1946 the new postwar Labour Government accordingly passed the New Towns Act 1946 that gave statutory and legal powers to enable the planning, development and construction of a series of “New Towns”. Progress was swift and on 1 August 1946 Stevenage in Hertfordshire was designated as the first New Town and the Stevenage Development Corporation was formed. The Corporation was required first to draw up a master plan, necessitating discussions with numerous central and local government interests as well as carrying out physical activities such as site surveys to ensure that physically development could take place.

Despite local opposition, and a legal setback to the plans that was eventually overcome, work did start on site albeit slowly due to postwar austerity and capital constraints. The design was predicated by the planning ethos that saw the own comprise a series of self contained neighbourhood units that had a degree of ‘self-sufficiency’ with local shops, education and health facilities. The neighbourhoods were linked to a new central Town Centre and an industrial zone; at Stevenage this was to the west of the main line railway as was to be the new A1 road bypass – the latter was not completed until 1962.

This booklet, in two editions from 1949 and a second in 1950, was printed at the Shenval Press of London and Hertford and the cover shows the prevailing contemporary typographic ‘look’ of simple and bold use of typefaces: a large size of Olympic, with letterspaced capitals from Thorowgood Sans Shaded. One interesting point; the first edition gives the first Chairman of the Corporation as being The Rev. Charles Jenkinson, the fiery priest who had become famous in his adopted Leeds for furthering social housing causes. Jenkinson, as the second edition notes, sadly died on 3 August 1949 and was replaced by Monica Felton who was equally, it appears, fiesty. Many sources give the first Chairman as being Clough Williams-Ellis yet his name appears nowhere in these official publications.

See images from the interior in Mike Ashworth’s Flickr set.