80's

Radiotehnika audio equipment 101 series

Alexey Nevsky — Sun, 04 Aug 2024 15:15:23 +0000

Contributed by Alexey Nevsky

Source: www.drive2.ru License: All Rights Reserved.

Radiotehnika RRR was considered one of the best musical equipment manufacturing plants in the USSR. It was located in the city of Riga in the Latvian SSR, but its roots predate the USSR. From the Radiotehnika website:

“VEF Radiotehnika RRR” was founded in 1927 in Riga, Latvia and had radio/audio production as a main activity. The company was given its present name Radiotehnika RRR (Rīgas radiorūpnīca – Riga Radio Factory) in 1941 joining two private companies: a joint stock company “Foto-radio centrāle A. Leibovic” established on 28 December 1927 and a radio production company “A. Apsītis un F. Žukovskis” established in 1934.

This plant produced both a vinyl record player and speakers.

The Radiotehnika logo as used in the 1980s is based on Kabel Black, in Latin letters. Eurostile Extended was used in the design of the 101 series, featuring a Cyrillic version for the Russian-language labels. The 101 series included an radio tuner (T-101), a vinyl record player (ЭП-101), an audio cassette player (М-201), and a 20-watt power amplifier (У-101).

Source: www.drive2.ru License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: ideafix.su License: All Rights Reserved.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Sphere Corporation logo

Ben Zotto — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 03:40:37 +0000

Contributed by Ben Zotto

Photo: Ben Zotto. License: CC BY-SA.

Printed circuit boards manufactured by Sphere Corporation of Utah, circa 1975. The condensed sans is Alternate Gothic.

Sphere Corporation was a short-lived manufacturer of early microcomputers outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, operating from 1975 to 1977. Sphere computers were available in kit or assembled form, and were among the earliest all-in-one microcomputer systems, using an integral keyboard and screen. Sphere’s logo and wordmark consisted of the name “SPHERE” set in Tuxedo (a.k.a. Program) and “CORPORATION” in a close-tracked Microgramma.

This branding did not appear on the exterior of the computer itself, but could be seen etched in tiny form on some individual circuit boards (shown above). It was used in large format on documentation and in the company’s marketing.

Notably and curiously, Sphere's use of Tuxedo in their wordmark followed competitor MITS, which used Tuxedo prominently on their earlier Altair computers. This was probably a coincidence, but nevertheless appears as a strange homage to a key competitor in what was a very small industry at that time.

Photo: Ben Zotto. License: CC BY-SA.

Binder of documentation for a Sphere computer (c. 1975)

Source: commons.wikimedia.org Sphere Corp. Scan by Michael Holley. License: Public Domain.

Full-page advertisement in Byte magazine (January 1976). Other fonts used for the ad include Gill Kayo, Alternate Gothic, Times New Roman, Optima and Univers.

The logo in another full-page advert in Byte magazine (Nov. 1975), with the address in Optima

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Electronic & Computer Music by Peter Manning

Florian Hardwig — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 15:11:13 +0000

Contributed by Florian Hardwig

Source: archive.org Internet Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

Together with the jagged wave lines, Klaus Richter’s striped Television (Mecanorma, 1975) creates a relevant technical look for the cover of Peter Manning’s Electronic & Computer Music. First published in hardback in 1985, this is the paperback edition from 1987. The book was set by Hope Services, Abingdon. It’s not clear if they designed the cover, too.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Metra tickets, 1990–1991

Florian Hardwig — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 14:50:00 +0000

Contributed by Florian Hardwig

January 1990, ft. an unidentified rounded sans

February 1990 ft. Italia Bold

C82 is the website of Nicholas Rougeux, a Chicago-based designer and data artist. One of the many great things one can find on C82 is his collection of train tickets sold by Metra. Every month, the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area releases a new ticket design. In 2004, Nick started collecting. Over the years, and with the help from other ephemera enthusiasts as well as of Metra, the archive considerably grew in size. At the time of writing, it includes an impressive 1,395 tickets, spanning more than fifty years of commuter history.

This post highlights the monthly tickets from 1990 and 1991. In a recent blog update, Nick comments:

In the early 90s, ticket designs varied significantly with new typography and visual styles appearing each month. I can’t say these are some of my favorites but I recognize that this may have been in an effort to curb counterfeiting. However, I do enjoy some of the typography from the 1990s tickets. I owe a big thanks to fellow collector John for these and others.

Each of the tickets features a different typeface. Many of the chosen fonts stem from the libraries of ITC (Korinna, Quorum, Serif Gothic, Zapf Chancery, …) and Letraset (Caxton, Italia, Romic (Letraset), …). There are also classics that go back to the era of foundry type, like Beton, City, or Optima, and Monotype originals like Albertus and Plantin. The typographic smorgasbord is completed by designs as diverse as Moderne Schwabacher, a turn-of-the-century blackletter; Salut, an upright script first cast by Gebr. Klingspor in the 1930s; and Checkmate, a futuristic sans with chamfered corners, dreamt up at Schaedler in the 1970s – all of which were either used still as phototype, or in the form of early digitizations.

For the year 1990, all abbreviated month names are shown in vertically stretched letterforms. The source of the stacked numerals (“90”) was identified by Quinn as City Bold, see comments. The bitmap caps (“D/A”) are likely custom. While the spelled-out month names and the ticket numbers are similar to OCR-B, the specific font appears to be a proprietary design with some differences, probably from a specialized printing machine.

The Metra logo seen on the depicted train as well as on some of the tickets is Crillee. See also the dedicated post about it.

March 1990 ft. Macbeth

April 1990 ft. City Bold

May 1990 ft. Checkmate

June 1990 ft. Roberta

July 1990 ft. what appears to be a version of Filmotype Amber (or a similar face)

August 1990 ft. Salut

September 1990 ft. Moderne Schwabacher a.k.a. Chalet Text

October 1990 ft. Clarendon Condensed

November 1990 ft. Beton Bold Condensed

January 1991 ft. ITC Quorum Bold

February 1991 ft. ITC Kabel Ultra

March 1991 ft. ITC Serif Gothic Heavy with the pointed forms for M and A that were omitted from the digital version. “March 1991” uses ITC Korinna and Times New Roman.

April 1991 ft. a bold variant of Plantin

May 1991 ft. a bold variant of Albertus

June 1991 ft. Caxton Bold

July 1991 ft. Optima Bold

August ft. ITC Cheltenham Bold

September 1991 ft. ITC Zapf Chancery Bold with the alternate swash caps

October 1991 ft. a bold variant of Century Oldstyle

November 1991 ft. Romic (Letraset) Bold

December 1991 ft. ITC Berkeley Oldstyle

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Heathkit Winter Kitbuilding Fun 1980 catalog

Briar Levit — Sun, 12 Mar 2023 11:14:20 +0000

Contributed by Briar Levit

Source: archive.org Heath Company. License: All Rights Reserved.

From 1947 until 1992, the Heath Company from Michigan manufactured electronic kits and marketeted them under the brand name Heathkit. One category in which Heathkit enjoyed great popularity was amateur radio.

The display typeface used on the cover of the Heathkit Mail Order Catalog No. 848 is Dimensia, with a snowflake added as i dot. “Winter Kitbuilding Fun–1980” uses the small caps included in this font by Alphabet Innovations.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Kodak Pleaser II and Pleaser Trimprint instant cameras

Florian Hardwig — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 18:42:27 +0000

Contributed by Florian Hardwig

Source: www.ebay.com virtualmerch. License: All Rights Reserved.

The Pleaser II Kodamatic is an instant camera by Kodak, introduced in 1982 as a successor to the Pleaser. It’s operated with HS144 film and was produced until 1985. The Pleaser II logo is based on the “Love” weight of True Critt, a Headliners original designed by Critt Graham in 1970.

The Pleaser Trimprint (1984–1986) is a related model that also uses True Critt for the logo.

Source: www.ebay.com naughtychamp. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.etsy.com Lakehousevintage. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Nick Sherman and tagged with “truecritt”. License: CC BY-NC-SA.

Spotted at Zaborski Emporium

Source: www.etsy.com PGHCameraExchange. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.etsy.com PGHCameraExchange. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.ebay.com treasures340. License: All Rights Reserved.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

ORWO Audio Fe I LH cassette

Paul Poster — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 10:38:57 +0000

J-card and label for blank audio cassettes made under the ORWO brand in the German Democratic Republic, AKA East Germany. The cassettes were manufactured by the VEB Chemiefaserwerk “Friedrich Engels” in Premnitz, Brandenburg, and sold for 17 ostmarks. The typeface is Gert Wunderlich’s contribution to the neo-grotesque genre. Maxima was designed from 1963 on in response to Western typefaces like Univers, and first issued in 1970 by Typoart.

PrintMaster

B.J. Winzer — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 02:02:01 +0000

PrintMaster title screen

PrintMaster was published in 1985 as a competitor to Broderbund’s The Print Shop, who successfully sued for copyright infringement. PrintMaster had a number of advantages over The Print Shop, namely mixed-case fonts and a calendar function (which The Print Shop didn't until The Print Shop Companion). Currently, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt owns the intellectual property for both Print Shop and PrintMaster.

All the fonts in the 1985 release of PrintMaster appear to be inspired by existing typefaces, including foundry type and designs for transfer lettering:

DeVille — derived from Murray Hill
Scribe — Old English
Office — similar to Helvetica or Unica
Hampton — Belshaw
Times — Times or Times New Roman
Western — derived from Playbill, less condensed
Utopia — Futura Black (uppercase) and Chaillot (lowercase)
Computer — Data 70

DeVille and Scribe, from the manual

Office, Hampton and Times, from the manual

Western, Utopia and Computer, from the manual

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

J.G. Ballard paperbacks (Triad Granada)

Florian Hardwig — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 13:24:51 +0000

Contributed by Florian Hardwig

Crash (1973) [More info on ISFDB] See also the Brazilian variation.

This series of paperback editions of books by J.G. Ballard (1930–2009) was published by Triad Granada in the United Kingdom in 1984–1985, with cover art by James Marsh. The typographer is unknown.

Not quite sure if this really is a version/modification of Futura Extra Bold. Not Tempo Black either. The J is more like in Filmotype Flyer. The G and the M throw me off. [edit: Bryson suggests a modified Twentieth Century Ultrabold, see comments.]

The Drought (1965), first published as The Burning World (1964) [More info on ISFDB]

The Disaster Area (1967) [More info on ISFDB]

Concrete Island (1974) [More info on ISFDB]

The Unlimited Dream Company (1979) [More info on ISFDB]

Myths of the Near Future (1982) [More info on ISFDB]

The Day of Forever (1967) [More info on ISFDB]

Back cover of Crash

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Philips Videopac G7200 Video Game Console

Stephen Coles — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:07:59 +0000

Philips Videopac G7200
Videopac fan page

Source: balduin.wordpress.com License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: michielvanderzanden.blogspot.com 3D visualization by Michiel van der Zanden. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.bermuda.ch Videopac Newscaster Cartridge Manual. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.bermuda.ch License: All Rights Reserved.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use