Drei Rosen was a Konsumgaststätte in Rötha, Saxony, just south of Leipzig. Located at the town square, the inn went under this floral name already in 1908, albeit with a different sign. The building goes back all the way to around 1410. According to Schwarze Lichter der Stadt, the once popular restaurant has been disused since 1995. The adjacent Theater der Drei Rosen offered film screenings from 1924 until 1991, and was demolished in 2015.

The sign with letters patterned after Eckmann was installed during GDR times. It’s framed by the Konsum logo (designed in 1959 by Karl Thewalt) with a sublogo for the state-controlled restaurants on the left and the titular three roses on the right.

Documented by Monsier Adrien in March 2024.

ITC Ronda Bold (1970) with several of its alternates, on the jacket of a book with science fiction tales by Edgar Pangborn (1909–1976), published by The Macmillan Group in 1972. We get to see the e with angled bar, the g with spur (cf. the Kabel-inspired ITC Grizzly, also from 1970), the forward-leaning s/S, the untailed Futura-like t, and both forms of a.

Cover art by Andrew J. Rhodes. No typographer is credited.

From the inner flaps:

The title story relates how one tearful stray from a herd of alien livestock caused great consternation on earth, and how the apologetic herders made amends. There is a novelette about the bizarre abduction of Harp Ryder’s young wife – told by the only man who will ever know the truth; the ten-legged blue bugs that can give you a dream – or a nightmare; the startling case of the man found huddling naked in the elephant’s cage at the zoo; and the shadow-monkeys from – where? – with their annoying habit of following along, even when you’re out parking with your girl.

Then there’s Darius, a most unusual cat; the pickup truck bound for Olympus; the chicken bone – well, not creature exactly; the remarkable journal of Dr. David Bannerman, recently deceased; and the ‘wrens’ Grampa hatched from his bear the summer he was 106.

Mysterical, mysterious, blood-curdling, or tipped with irony, all these tales are finely-drawn explorations of men facing ‘the other’ – entertaining testimony to the reach of our soaring imagination and boundless ability to cope with the unexpected and, sometimes, to the little quirks that make us human.

[More info on ISFDB]

Suur Tõll [Tyll the Giant] is a giant from Estonian mythology. Legend has it that he was decapitated while protecting the people of Saaremaa but promised to return from death if the people needed him.

The legend was adapted into a short animated film in 1980, directed by Rein Raamat with art by Jüri Arrak. Shortly thereafter they also recreated the story in book form, published by Perioodika in both Estonian and Russian language editions.

While the text in the animation is all hand-lettered, the book uses Bullion on the cover with Zhurnalnaya Roublennaya throughout the interior, for both the Estonian and Russian editions.

(Images from the Estonian and Russian editions are shown adjacently here for easier comparison).

Hello Nasty is the fifth studio album by the Beastie Boys, released on July 14, 1998 by Grand Royal/Capitol Records. The album art was designed by Bill McMullen with art direction by Cey Adams, co-founder of design studio The Drawing Board (1986–1999).

From Min Chen’s article for Proxy Music:

The album’s sleeve art marked a dimensional shift from the street-dwelling images of 1989’s Paul’s Boutique and 1992’s Check Your Head, embracing instead a whole other astro plane. Cover designer Bill McMullen (who, while working at Def Jam Records in the mid ‘90s, first met the Beastie Boys at a basketball game) revealed in 2013 that he’d actually planned to illustrate an underwater base, a “weird, bottom-of-the-sea type thing.” Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz, however, nudged him onto the opposite path. Recalled McMullen, “He was like, ‘Yeah, it’s cool, like, undersea stuff. But you know what’s really cool is a space station.’”

The space theme extends to the visual rendition of the band name and album title. They feature original lettering inspired by Countdown, a futuristic (or, by 1998, retro-futuristic) typeface desiged by Colin Brignall for Letraset in 1965.

[More info on Discogs]

Visual comparison of the original lettering (top) and a resetting in the Countdown font, using URW’s digital version (bottom). All letterforms have been adjusted to various degrees. The differences are most striking in a and the descenderless y, where all the thicks were moved to the left. Likewise, the ascenders in b and h were thinned to match the left part of the bowls. The waist of a e s was lowered, and thin top horizontals thickened. Lastly, the dot on i was omitted.

Back cover with track list in Futura.

Schematic drawing of the canned band members with an outlined version of the lettering, on one of the inner sleeves.

Record label (Side B). “Grand Royal” features the same style of lettering, with a thin ascender for d. Unlike in Countdown, g is monocular. Two weights of Futura are used for the track list and the credits.

Record label (Side D).

Apparently the designer of this promotional poster wanted to add the release date in a similar style. The numerals are not from Countdown, though, but from the rounder Amelia, another Space Age face issued by VGC around the same time.

UK promo billboard, 60″×40″

Tour posters in various colors.

Sinaloa in use for a handheld game from the Animest series, made by Japanese toy manufacturer Popy (ポピー) in 1982. Arale Norimaki (則巻アラレ) is the protagonist of the Dr. Slump (Dr. スランプ) manga series set in Penguin Village (ペンギン村), created by Akira Toriyama.

The Animest logo as well as “Popy Electronics Game” and “Dr. Slump Arale” are in Amelia. The control labels use a thin wide sans of unknown origin [it’s Nāru, see comments].

See also the websites of the Handheld Games Museum, 20th Century Retro Games, and the Dr. Slump Wiki. Via Will Pierce.

The Animest logo in all-caps Amelia also appeared on other Popy games, like Space Cobra.

“Old Fashioned” (No. 186), featuring a modified version of Othello or similar for the headline. It’s distinguished by notches in the counters, descending stems, and tiny serifs (like Rubens or Hess Neobold). [Edit: It’s Davison Bolero, see comments.] Like the pictured locomotive, Othello was old-fashioned at the time of this booklet’s publication: Originally designed by Gustave F. Schroeder in the late 1800s, it was revived by Morris Fuller Benton for American Typefounders (ATF) in 1934.

Covers for various clip books of line art published in 1969 by Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio, Pleasantville, New Jersey. See the previous post about the clip books issued in 1955 for more information on Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio.

“Science” (No. 523) is at the opposite end of the spectrum. The depiction of an astronaut in front of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle is accompanied by the futuristic Eurostile Bold Extended, Aldo Novarese’s extension of Microgramma, originally designed by Alessandro Butti for Nebiolo in the 1950s. As in “Old Fashioned”, the bottom lines use Alternate Gothic Compressed and Helvetica.

“The Wedding” (No. 178) ft. Koch-Antiqua-Kursiv.

“Office” (No. 180) ft. illustration by Tom Sawyer and the trendy Amelia.

“Famous Folk” (No. 181) ft. Don Quixote and Visa.

“Winter” (No. 185) ft. Filmotype Quentin.

“Entertainment” (No. 187) ft. Tacan.

“Crowds” (No. 502) ft. Grotesque No. 9 in italic caps.

“Senior Citizens” (No. 503) ft. Eurostile.

“Circus/Fair” (No. 504) ft. West Barnum.

“The Farm” (No. 506) ft. Neil Bold. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Summer” (No. 507) ft. York. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Medicine” (No. 508) ft. York.

“Industry” (No. 511) ft. Giorgio (VGC). Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Executives” (No. 518) ft. Filmotype Veteran.

“Service” (No. 519) with what looks like an apocryphal Cooper Black, obliqued with a fancy S.

“Women” (No. 521) ft. Calendar.

“Couples” (No. 522) ft. obliqued caps from Futura Dot.

“Occupations” (No. 524) ft. more Eurostile Bold Extended.

“Ad Starters” from the Paste Pot & Scissors series (No. PP117), featuring Corvinus and a regular width of Microgramma. The small print here includes Futura, Futura Condensed, and News Gothic.

“Time” (No. PP118) ft. Filmotype Quincy.

“Hands” (No. PP119) ft. Thalia.

“Animals” (No. PP120) ft. Neuland.

“Elfie & Gremmie” (No. PP122) ft. Whimzitype 3600, stretched.

“Eye, Ear, Mouth” (No. PP124) ft. an early use of Davison Jumbo.

“Design Devices” (No. PP128) ft. Urban.

“Homes • Buildings” from the Paste Pot & Scissors series, ft. Twentieth Century.

Source: www.amazon.co.uk License: All Rights Reserved.

Apeman, Spaceman: An Anthology of Anthropological Science Fiction, edited by Leon H. Stover and Harry Harrison, 1972.

One of the most iconic uses of Amelia is arguably Penguin’s Science Fiction series from the early 1970s. David Pelham, who served as Penguin’s art director from 1968 to 1979, “continued the use of strongly colored illustrations introduced by Alan Aldridge” (Phil Baines: Penguin By Design, 2005). The thirteen paperback covers from this series feature dystopian illustrations (all by Pelham himself) in various styles, using strong and bright colors. They are united by the use of all-caps Amelia for the author’s name (or the title, for compilations), sandwiched between lines in News Gothic for the series name and the title, against a black background.

In his role of art director at Penguin, Pelham would often connect certain typefaces with a genre or a specific author. Under his direction, the science fiction covers would continue to use News Gothic in combination with other typefaces and illustrators until a radical change of style in 1979. Pelham left Penguin Publishers in 1980: “When, from time to time I overheard people in the marketing department referring to books as ‘the product’, I knew it was time to jump.”

Amelia was designed by Stan Davis (b. 1938), a Cooper Union graduate. In 1966, it was chosen as one of 15 award winning type face designs in a competition sponsored by the Visual Graphics Corporation (VGC) in Tamarac, Florida. With its MICR-inspired aesthetic featuring an unconventional distribution of thicks and thins, it soon became associated with all things computer, futuristic, or paranormal, and was a popular choice at the peak of the Space Age. One influential example is S. Neil Fujita’s jacket for Future Shock (1970).

For additional info on this series (and beyond), see also chapter 18 of James Pardey’s Art of Penguin Science Fiction, Josh MacPhee’s expansive blog post on the Penguin Science Fiction
covers, and the Unsubscribed Blog.

Source: www.flickr.com The Unsubscriber (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Science Fiction Omnibus, edited by Brian Aldiss, 1972.

Source: www.flickr.com The Unsubscriber (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Philip K. Dick: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by exaquint and tagged with “amelia” and “newsgothic”. License: All Rights Reserved.

Kurt Vonnegut: Cat’s Cradle, 2nd edition, 1973.

Source: www.abebooks.com Bytown Bookery. License: All Rights Reserved.

Olaf Stapledon: Star Maker.

Source: justseeds.org Josh MacPhee. License: All Rights Reserved.

Olaf Stapledon: Last and First Men / Last Men In London, 1972.

Source: www.flickr.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Olaf Stapledon: Sirius: A Fantasy Of Love And Discord, 1973.

Source: justseeds.org Josh MacPhee. License: All Rights Reserved.

Zenna Henderson: The People: No Different Flesh.

Source: www.abebooks.com Plane Tree Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth: The Space Merchants, 1973.

Source: flic.kr License: All Rights Reserved.

Frederik Pohl: A Plague of Pythons, 1973.

Source: www.flickr.com Birmingham Phil. License: All Rights Reserved.

Michael Moorcock: A Cure for Cancer, 1973.

Source: www.flickr.com The Unsubscriber (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Philip José Farmer: Night of Light.

Source: www.flickr.com The Unsubscriber (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

James Blish: Black Easter or Faust Aleph-Null, 1972.

Countdown was a British sci-fi comic published weekly under various titles from 1971 to 1973. In addition to comic strips based on various TV programs, such as Doctor Who and UFO, Countdown featured its own self-titled strip including spacecraft designs from the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The comic’s type styles are clearly derived from 2001 (e.g., Microgramma) and other space-based entertainment of the day, and the Countdown logo appears to be lettering based on the 1965 typeface of the same name! Countdown is also used frequently in the interior of the comic, including the title of the recurring feature “Do Flying Saucers Exist?”.

It was easy to see that someone with a creative eye was in charge of Countdown. It looked very modern and stylish. … it also had its own unique gimmicks, such as the page numbering which ran backwards! Living up to its name, the pages began at 24 and counted down to the back page being 1. Don't worry; the stories themselves were not printed in reverse order. — Lew Stringer

See more of issues 1 and 2 below, and many more issues at Saved From The Paper Drive.

“The free gift in issue one was a fantastic ‘Giant Spacefact Wallchart’ with the first set of stickers to adorn the edges of the chart. (Other stickers would be given free in following issues, thus hooking the reader into continuing with the comic.)” — Lew Stringer

The editor, Dennis Hooper, greets readers by touting Countdown’s photogravure printing process, common at the time for fashion magazines, but certainly not comic books.

The Dr. Who title is set in Amelia. Speech balloon text uses Gill Sans in light roman and italic caps.

Countdown No. 2.

Countdown continued to feature Countdown in subsequent issues.

What is more futuristic than Countdown? Don’t miss the description of the autonomous cars of the future guided by computers and subsurface cables.

Canongate:

In his ambitious and fiercely inventive new novel, John Wray takes us from turn-of-the-century Viennese salons buzzing with rumours about Einstein's radical new theory to the death camps of the Second World War, from the golden age of post-war pulp science fiction to a startling discovery in a modern-day Manhattan apartment packed to the ceiling with artefacts of contemporary life.

The main typeface is the marvelous Taüll by Andreu Balius (Typerepublic, 2007), “a southern flavoured typeface […] inspired from old black lettering devices” — and bearing some resemblance to Louis Oppenheim’s Fanfare (1927) —, designed with the goal “to link the medieval world with our brand new digital metropolis.” The slightly angular script used for the article is Laura Worthington’s Voltage (thanks to Oli for the ID!).

Via the highly recommended “Notable Book Covers of 2016”, compiled by Dan Wagstaff for his blog The Casual Optimist.