Lu Watter’s Yerba Buena Jazz Band – Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin, recorded Dec. 1941. [More info on Discogs]
 

Lilith is an extrabold italic with partly open letterforms and horizontal hatching, further embellished with baroque mid-stem ornamentation in the capitals. Some details like the Fraktur-like construction of W reveal its German origin: Lilith was first cast by the Bauer foundry in 1930, after designs by Lucian Bernhard (1883–1972) who had left the country for New York seven years earlier.

Bauer had opened an office in New York in 1927. This way, Lilith was available in the United States as well. In the early 1940s, it was chosen for the logo of Jazz Man Records. Founded in 1941, the record label was an offshoot of David Stuart’s Jazz Man Record Shop on Hollywood’s Santa Monica Boulevard (and in 1959 on L.A.’s West Pico Boulevard). In 1946, Stuart sold it to his ex-wife, Marili Morden and her new husband, Nesuhi Ertegun. According to Wikipedia, the label and its namesake shop “were in the vanguard of an international revival of traditional jazz in the 1940s.“

Glyph set for Lilith from Penrose Annual 41, 1939, in an article on the “Victorian Revival” in typefaces by Robert Harling

Lu Watter’s Yerba Buena Jazz Band – Muskrat Ramble by Ed Ory, recorded Dec. 1942. [More info on Discogs]
The secondary typefaces are Koch-Antiqua and Bulmer.
 

Johnny Wittwer – Ragtime Nightingale by Joseph Lamb, recorded Dec. 1945. [More info on Discogs]
In January 1947, the labels were redesigned in a green color, matching that of Crescent Records.
Secondary typefaces are Futura and a slab serif that resembles Stymie Bold, but has a non-descending J.

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.

This compilation album with twenty hits by artists such as Jerry Butler, Little Anthony & The Imperials, Ray Sharpe, Marvin & Johnny, The Dubs, and The Innocents was released around 1962 by Mark-FI Records in Hollywood, California.

The cover was printed in two colors, pink and black, with the title shown in Jim Crow. The big “20” at the top left is lettering based on this octagonal open and shaded sans with stripe fill. “Twenty hit oldies” is in Figaro and “by the stars who made them famous!!!!!!!!” in Filmotype Windsor. The side headings are in another Filmotype release, the wide railroad slab Western. The names of songs and artists are set in Consort, using mostly the condensed width.

[More info on Discogs]

Teaser poster

From Wikipedia:

Marty Supreme is a 2025 American sports comedy-drama film co-produced and directed by Josh Safdie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Ronald Bronstein, loosely based on the life and career of American table tennis player Marty Reisman. Co-produced by and starring Timothée Chalamet, the film also features Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Kevin O’Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara, and Fran Drescher in supporting roles.

The main posters feature the title in a stretched and manipulated version of Gill Kayo Condensed and corresponding headers in Neue Helvetica Condensed, including its Heavy style. The billing block is set in Bee Two.

Eric Gill, the designer of Gill Sans, initially called the ultrabold style “Sans Double Elefans”. Released as Kayo, derived from “K.O.” (i.e. knockout in boxing), it feels appropriate for the main movie title on the poster, as it is a very prominent typeface used in sports.

The movie logo compared to a resetting in Gill Kayo Condensed with stretched letterforms. Various subsequent optimizations have been made, see for example the horizontals in T and E, the counters in A and Y, or the bottom of U. In the process, some glyphs like R ended up resembling Gill Sans Extra Condensed Bold.

Timothée and Josh Safdie imitating the Marty Mauser pose at the Marty Supreme black carpet in Los Angeles.

Gwyneth Paltrow in front of the movie logo

Secondary fonts used on this poster include Girga for the tagline “A story of two ladies going south”, Univers Bold Italic for the names, and Bee for the credits. The wide sans at the very top and bottom was identified as Sequel Sans, see comments.

Drive-Away Dolls is a 2024 crime comedy directed by Ethan Coen and co-written with his wife Tricia Cooke, who was also the film’s editor and uncredited co-director. It stars Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan as two lesbian friends on a road trip that takes a wrong turn. Set in 1999, the film has a gritty aesthetic that fits its classic caper plot.

The film posters and trailers use Freehouse by Rian Hughes for the title. The distressed version of Freehouse, designed “to evoke rough print on a wet beermat”, was used on an earlier poster release.

“Official trailer 2” is added in all-caps Brandon Grotesque Light.

This poster designed by AV Print additionally uses Trade Gothic Next Compressed.

Holiday in Italy features a photo of the Forum Romanum and an all-caps setting of Filmotype Zion. From the back cover:

[More info on Discogs]

Nestor Amaral (1913–1962) was a Brazilian musician, composer and singer who also appeared in several films. In 1957, Hollywood-based budget label Tops Records released a series of holiday-themed albums. Each volume is dedicated to a different country. The cover photographs of two of them are courtesy of Trans World Airlines (TWA). The airline is also mentioned on the back cover and might have been a sponsor of the series.

About the artist (from Holiday in France):

Holiday in France depicts a ceremonial act at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The title is set in Filmotype Hunter. “Nestor Amaral and His Continentals” is again added in Venus Extended Light.

[More info on Discogs]

Holiday in Brazil has a long-exposure photo showing the traffic at Rio’s Copacabana, with a line drawing of two maracas on top. The letterforms of Latin Wide were arranged on a bouncing baseline and embellished with a thin hand-drawn inline. The credit line uses bold Bodoni caps. From the back cover:

[More info on Discogs]

Ring The Bells is a gospel album by The Melody Messengers, released by Master Records in 1972. The typeface is one of the various phototype revivals of Oceana, which originated at Berlin’s Theinhardt foundry in the 1890s. Unlike Davison Clermont, another interpretation issued by Photo-Lettering in or before 1969, the version used here stays closer to the original Oceana.

[More info on Discogs]

Love Is All Around is a compilation of tracks recorded by Eric Burdon and War, but not released during the band’s brief existence (1969–1971). The album, released in 1976 on ABC Records, contains tracks written by War/Burdon, plus cover versions of “A Day in the Life” from The Beatles and “Paint It Black” from The Rolling Stones.

The album concept is by band member Lee Oskar, and presents the cover as the frontpage of a “WAR Extra, Vol. 1” of the Good Times, with “all the news that fits, we print”. The idea of record cover as newspaper was previously explored by S. Neil Fujita for Dave Brubeck at Storyville in 1954.

Design by Hollywood-based design studio Gribbit Studios, with the obligatory blackletter (Fette Fraktur) for the nameplate, a tight-setting bold condensed (Anzeigen-Grotesk) for the main headline, some Futura version for second-level headings, and Century Expanded for text.

[More info on Discogs]

Compilation album by Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66 released by A&M Records in 1970 in their Greatest Hits series. It opens with the group’s cover version of “Mas que Nada” which, according to Mendes, “was the first time that a song in Portuguese was a hit in America and all over the world.” It here is misspelled as “Mais que Nada”.

The series design features bold outlined Clarendon caps with color fill and a (custom added?) monolinear heartline. “Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66” as well as the song names use Pretorian.

1971 release with different colors

Cover of the original release

Swingin’ New Big Band is a 1966 album from famed drummer Buddy Rich and his big band, recorded live at The Chez in Hollywood, CA.

The artist name and title on the front cover, as well as the track listing on the back cover, are set in Palisade Graphic, with the “Buddy Rich” and track listing text stretched to essentially create an artificial condensed style. The “Recorded ‘Live’ at the Chez” text is set in a thin weight of Eurostile. “Hollywood, California” is added in Univers Condensed.

[More info on Discogs]

For the stereo version, the whole design was shifted to the bottom, as it was commonly done.

Back cover

A ‘special feature’ preceding the release of John Wick 4, in which Keanu Reeves - who plays the titular character - gives a one-minute summing up of the first three movies.

Alias Cactus was also used for advertising for John Wick 2.

Renfield is a 2023 American comedy horror film starring Nicolas Cage, Nicholas Hoult and Awkwafina. From Universal Pictures:

In this modern monster tale of Dracula's loyal servant, Renfield, the tortured aide to history's most narcissistic boss is forced to procure his master's prey and do his every bidding, no matter how debased. But now, after centuries of servitude, Renfield is ready to see if there's a life outside the shadow of The Prince of Darkness. If only he can figure out how to end his codependency.

Alias Harbour has a one-off use in the film as headline type announcing a change of location.

Designer Woody Woodward was into type-only album covers. We previously featured one such designs of his, made in 1963 for The De-Fenders, with Inserat-Grotesk.

The cover shown here is from the year before, for an album by Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers originally released in 1957. It’s combined with a session recorded by the Elmo Hope Quintet featuring saxophonist Harold Land in October 1957. Woodward used Grotesque No. 9 Italic and repeated the title five times, building a mesmerizing wall of type. You can listen to the music on the Internet Archive.

[More info on Discogs]

The track list on the back is set in News Gothic Bold, with Kaufmann Bold for the headings. The roman used for John William Hardy’s liner notes is a bit too small to identify.

Let’s Get It On is the thirteenth studio album by Marvin Gaye, released on August 28, 1973. The cover features Bobo Bold in red letters. Gaye’s liner notes on the gatefold and the credits on the back are set in ITC Avant Garde Gothic. The photography is by Jim Britt.

From Wikipedia:

Serving as Gaye’s first venture into the funk genre, Let’s Get It On also incorporates smooth soul and doo-wop styles alongside sexually suggestive lyrics, leading to one writer’s description of it as “one of the most sexually charged albums ever recorded”. Gaye infused ideas of spiritual healing in songs about sex and romance, in part as a way of coping with childhood abuses from his father Marvin Gay Sr., which had stunted his sexuality.

Following the breakthrough success of his socially conscious album What’s Going On (1971), Let’s Get It On helped establish Gaye as a sex icon and broadened his mainstream appeal. It produced three singles—the title track, “Come Get to This”, and “You Sure Love to Ball” – that achieved Billboard chart success. Let’s Get It On became the most commercially successful album of Gaye’s career at Motown, resulting in more creative control being given to him by the label. Its erotic balladry, multi-tracking of Gaye’s vocals, and seductive funk sound also influenced later R&B recording artists and producers, with the title track specifically helping pioneer the slow jam and quiet storm formats.

[More info on Discogs]

Poster artwork for Danish band WhoMadeWho’s concert at Avalon in Hollywood on January 29, 2022, with support by Jan Blomqvist.

All the Old Knives is an American thriller film directed by Janus Metz Pedersen and screenplay by Olen Steinhauer. It is based on the novel of the same name by Steinhauer. It stars Chris Pine, Thandiwe Newton, Laurence Fishburne, and Jonathan Pryce. The film is scheduled to be released in limited theaters and on digital on Amazon Prime Video on April 8, 2022.

Alias Cactus is used for title type.

[More info on IMDb]

The Hunt is a 2020 American horror thriller film where powerful elites capture and try to hunt down a group of people. From Wikipedia:

The film was directed by Craig Zobel and written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof. […] Zobel and Lindelof have said that the film is intended as a satire on the profound political divide between the American left and right.

The film’s trailer received backlash by some in the conservative media for portraying supporters of Donald Trump being hunted by liberals. Trump also issued a tweet on August 9, 2019, criticizing the film industry while stating, “The movie coming out is made in order to inflame and cause chaos”; although Trump did not specify the name of the film, news outlets said it was most likely a reference to The Hunt. Kyle Smith, writing in the National Review, argued that the film would likely have a right-wing, anti-liberal tone that had been misinterpreted by conservative critics of the film’s trailer.

Alias Cactus is used for title type for posters, trailer and premiere type, with Knockout being used for supporting type for posters. The pig image is a reference to George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

The Hunt trailer title typography

The Hunt trailer title typography

Betty Gilpin at The Hunt Premiere at the ArcLight in Hollywood, March 9 2020

Betty Gilpin with co-star Hilary Swank at The Hunt Premiere at the ArcLight in Hollywood, March 9 2020

Hilary Swank at The Hunt Premiere at the ArcLight in Hollywood, March 9 2020

Title screen at the press screening at ArcLight in Hollywood, March 9 2020

Double LP with greatest hits by singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole (1919–1965), released in 1972 by Capitol Records on their Special Markets label, and promoted through telemarketer Dynamic House.

For the cover of Volume 1, designer Roy Kohara shows a Warholesque grid of 3×3 miniature covers, featuring a photo of the artist smiling. The title is repeated at the top, set in ITC Bernase Roman. Issued in 1970, this typeface is Ronné Bonder’s and Tom Carnase’s phototype take on the De Vinne genre, and easily recognizable by its guffawing e. Bernase Roman here is used with one of its alternate two-story a’s. The track list is added in Linotype’s Benedictine.

Volume 2 explores a fairly different aesthetic, with tightly spaced Helvetica Medium on top of an illustrated portrait – apparently a mirrored version of the photograph rendered in crayon.

[More info on Discogs]

The official Star Wars T-shirt from 1977 features the iconic logo by Suzy Rice on the front, and “May the force be with you” on the back. The latter is set in all-caps Tabasco, with some of its alternate hyper-extended glyphs.

If you purchased the soundtrack to Star Wars in 1977, the flyer shown above was inside. It additionally uses Helvetica (incl. the Black weight which served as basis for Rice’s logo), Stencil (ATF) set on an angle, and Futura (for “black T-shirt only”).

The logo of comedy club franchise the Improv uses Piccadilly. This Letraset original was among the winners of a type design competition held in 1973. Drawn by Christopher Matthews, Piccadilly is based on the capitals of Morris F. Benton’s Broadway (1927), see them side by side. “With every character composed of a single continuous line of uniform thickness” (Matthews/Letraset), Piccadilly resembles the tubes in neon signs, see also ITC Neon.

From the Improv Wikipedia page:

Originally, it was a single venue founded in 1963 by Budd Friedman and located in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City on West 44th near the southeast corner of 9th Ave.

As of 2020, there are around two dozen venues across the United States. Read about the Improv’s history on their website.

A vertical variant of the logo for the Improv in Raleigh.

Inside the Improv in Raleigh.

Nicole Byer on stage at the Improv in Raleigh.

The second Improv venue on 8162 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, sometime after 1979 (when Mark Lonow became a general partner). Note that the letterforms in this early version are close to Piccadilly, but not a perfect match, see e.g. P and R.

The Improv on 8162 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood in 2019.