“Omar Rayo en la Segunda Bienal Americana de Artes Graficas / Museo La Terulia / Cali Colombia, Octubre 1973.” Stripes (1973) is paired with Pump Bold (1970), which is used without i dots.

Omar Rayo (1928–2010) was an abstract art painter from Colombia whose geometric Op Art works have been exhibited multiple times at Museo La Tertulia and at Museo Rayo in Cali. The two museums collaborated on a retrospective exhibition with paintings from both collections. Each time a catalogue was printed it featured a different typeface arrangement, mostly with geometric display typefaces. Both museums even made an special exhibition in 1977 called Los Rayos del Museo Rayo y los Rayos del Museo La Tertulia.

Some exhibition catalogues like the one for La constante geometría from 1972 had original lettering, but most of the covers and posters are early examples of instant lettering typefaces in use, with very original typesettings. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any information about the designer of these printed materials.

Another exhibition from 1985 called Rayo Serie Raya Blanca Raya Negra shows Stripes in use. In Spanish, Omar’s family name Rayo could be translated to “ray”, but when used in feminine form, Raya means “stripe”. In this case, it transtales to: Rayo White Stripe and Black Stripe Series.

Joc Line (1973).

Stop (1971) and caps from an unidentified wide grotesk (similar to Akzidenz-Grotesk or Venus breit) for Omar Rayo at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo.

Sans-serif caps from what appears to be a predigital cut of Helvetica, cropped and repeated.

Traffic (1973).

This piece of lettering appears to be modeled after Pacella Graphic Biform or Bailey.

Deutsch Black (1966).

These letterforms that look like folded paper strips are either custom drawn or from an unidentified typeface.

Compacta Bold Outline (1965) on an angle, with a circle punched out and rotated.

Eurostile neretto largo (1962), caught in a grid.

ITC Ronda Bold (1970), with a crop-and-repeat treatment and a custom interlinear ligature.

Good Vibrations (1973).

Yagi Link Double (1968).

Baby Teeth (c. 1966).

Hot Dog (1975). While most of the other typefaces were carried by Letraset, Hot Dog was exclusive to their competitor Mecanorma.

These caps look like they’re from Moore Computer (1968). The Y isn’t a match, though – it might be an alternate, or a modification.

This ladder-like arrangement appears to use custom drawn letterforms.

Poster for Rayo Serie Raya Blanca Raya Negra (1985), featuring Stripes and Helvetica. The Museo Rayo logo at the bottom left is based on ITC Avant Garde Gothic, while the text at the right is set in caps from Wexford.

Poster for La Constante Geometria (1972), ft. more ITC Ronda and Univers Ultra Condensed or similar. The big “OMAR RAYO” is probaby custom. For similar extracompressed digital fonts, see Radiator or Fit Skyline.

Two party flyers from T-Connection, 1981, both featuring the Cold Crush Brothers, and both using Sinaloa. The flyer for “an anniversary party for... Cold Crush Brothers” shows is signed “Buddy*Esq” in the right hand corner — shorthand for Buddy Esquire, a.k.a. The King of Hip Hop Flyers. The flyer was found on a (seemingly discontinued) website named Old School Flyers. Luckily a part of their collection is still shown in a Twitter bot account.

The Jungle Rock City flyer can be found in the fantastic online collection “Hip Hop Party and Event Flyers” of Cornell University.

The flyer for “Jungle Rock City” uses no less than seven typefaces, plus lettering. From top to bottom: Commercial Script; Sinaloa; Futura Black; Balloon; Piccadilly, Rocco, Helvetica, all available as Letraset dry transfer letters. The big images show Aretha Franklin and Bob Marley, probably present in the “Soulsonic Sounds of Master of Records Bambaataa”. Afrika Bambaataa was an important figure in the local Hip-hop scene, and would accelerate the worldwide success of Hip-Hop a year later with his Planet Rock.

I posted this to my blog years ago, but thought this would be a good place for it.

In 1977 at age 21, I was production manager (officially) and assistant art director (unofficially) for Metropolis, a weekly newspaper in Minneapolis. I was the resident “type expert” on staff, and the editor encouraged me to write a piece for “Final Draft,” a recurring miscellany page in the newspaper. I chose to survey the landscape of type clichés of the day.

Game box.

Mille Bornes is a French version of an American card game that's been around in one version or another for more than a hundred years. The illustrations shown here are from the French “edition spécial” of 1960. See also the 1960 Parker Brothers edition.

Cards.